Oculolophus caecus
Oculolophus caecus is an eyeless herbivorous wormlike muscal growing to twenty centimeters (20cm) in length native to Zone K found slowly crawling across the ground consuming small pieces of Aruraherba caesicoles polyphs in its simple jawless mouth. It is found meanwhile continuously twitching a chitinous crestlike structure in a halfway up-and-down manner to blindly navigate its surroundings in a form of echolocation of sorts.
Their ancestors were formerly troglophiles, evolving a auditory depth perception system instead, and they have now took the opportunity to reclaim the land in the aftermath of the gamma ray bursts which left available niches to be taken over.
This navigation organ is actually more complex than it sounds. An exposed muscle taps the "crest" halfway up and back down into the muscal's head, sending out small vibrations. Once these vibrations reflect back, they fly into a hole and go down the tube, which narrows and then expands to amplify the vibrations. Next, these vibrations hit a cochlea-like organ which collects small amounts of energy from being hit by the vibrations and sends electric signals to the brain based on how large the vibrations are. The brain then receives these signals and translates them into a scene that is percieved in a similar manner to vision. However, this differs from vision as the perception is monochrome and 2D. Lighter shades represent closer objects while darker shades represent farther objects. This process occurs and reupdates two (2) times a second each time the crest raises up and down. .
There is also a hollow, lightweight tube running down the torso and tail made of cartilage, acting as a simple backbone and anchoring the body together. It is soft, allowing for flexibility, and is also cheap to produce. The rest of the body consists of skin membranes, hardy muscles, and internal organs.
There is also a hollow, lightweight tube running down the torso and tail made of cartilage, acting as a simple backbone and anchoring the body together. It is soft, allowing for flexibility, and is also cheap to produce. The rest of the body consists of skin membranes, hardy muscles, and internal organs.
Oculolophus caecus lacks an advanced respiratory system and instead breathes through its thin skin by diffusion. The skin allows oxygen to pass through and get into the organs that require the oxygen to function, but does not allow more water through than necessary, using cellular diffusion to counter it. Oculolophus caecus contains circulatory and digestive systems but lacks lungs as they are not necessary. Oculolophus caecus lacks nostrals and only has a weak sense of smell throughout its skin that can only distinguish items from one meter (1m) away, but does have a sense of taste that can distinguish the difference between polyps and non-polyps.
Oculolophus caecus matures approximately five weeks (5w) after leaving the egg. Eggs are small and soft, and are laid in moderate numbers. Oculolophus caecus attempt to reproduce sexually with any member of its species (males and females cannot easily identify sexes apart and they mate by sliding their cloacas together, males releasing sperm into the other's cloaca) to save effort while lacking colored vision. Once fertilized, a female will lay up to 25 eggs once a month on the ground and leave them to fend by themselves
