(LEGACY) Anthropomundus: Gray Muna

In the 50-million-year window between the time when M. progenitor and other organisms were spilled into the young oceans of Anthropomundus and now, they were quickly populated by post-humans of all manner of shape, form, and size, occupying nearly every imaginable niche. Notably, the 350-micrometer-long fetal beings would have never known that their greatest grandchildren would be titans almost ten-million times their size, such as the great lunged werewhale (Eupneumocetus gigas). Most of the time, however, M. progenitor's children were humbled by this post-human's frightening size, including the four-meter gray muna (Hominothunnus grandis), the largest of their kind.

The munas were part of a clade of post-humans that had torpedo-shaped bodies and did not assume a cetoid shape; rather, these post-humans' pelvic flippers served as dual caudal fins instead, making them look more like fish than whales or dolphins. These allowed them to achieve quick bursts of speed when catching smaller prey or fleeing from predators that were large or armed with sharp teeth or bony plates, such as beserking seamen dogs or killer werewhales (Hominorca mystactophila).

In particular to the munas, the maxillary barbels characteristic to Anthropomundan post-humans were almost entirely lost. Olfaction, instead, was taken care of entirely by the nostrils as they once did. The nostrils also help supply oxygen to the gills as the munas swam around.

When the mating season came, the munas fertilized each other internally, which, for the females, was followed by a ten-day pregnancy culminating in the expulsion of dozens of tiny, precocious fry that ate the afterbirths or their stillborn siblings and then embarked on their perilous journey to adulthood. Because of this, there was no need to suckle, and thus mammary glands were lost in this clade.

PS: The idea behind the form of this post-human was "stolen" (with permission, of course) from juniorWoodchuck's Homoichtys splendidus.