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(LEGACY) Anthropomundus: Sixwingman

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The maxillary barbels, derived from the upper lip in their Homo sapiens ancestors, served a chemoreceptive, mechanoreceptive and tactile function in M. progenitor. After the seeding of Anthropomundus, these barbels became more lengthy and/or robust, or they became lost in certain lineages. Or, in one particular clade, they became another pair of limbs. Since this adds their effective limb number from four to six, these posthumans are called Hexaptera.

The transformation of the maxillary barbels from mere tentacles to a third pair of limbs was almost absolute, for that single slab of cartilage had actually evolved inside them, providing support and a point of attachment for muscles. This, in addition to the streamlined body shape, gave the hexapterans greater speed, as well as the ability to well rotate on their axes, at the slight cost of maneuverability.

Typically, hexapterans had a superior sense of smell and of sight. Their eyes faced forward, giving them binocular vision, helping them track down their prey. The nostrils, situated close to the eyes, could sense an enticing smell from far away, akin to sharks on old Earth. When something tickled the cilia of their nostrils, they would swim in the overall direction of that scent, keeping their eyes peeled. When they see something potentially edible, they turn their attention towards that thing, and then close in for a bite.

This particular species, the sixwingman (Hexapterus euopthalmos), lived off the eastern of the continent Ksandu. At one meter in length, these hexapterans hunted smaller nektonic posthumans, though the younger could be seen test-biting airheads, nautilus-like posthumans that float in the water column using air chambers derived from nasal sinuses. Their tough skin, however, rendered them inedible to their six-flippered tormentors, with the latter subsequentially not bothering with them ever again.

There were no less than two other hexapteran species 50 million years after the seeding: the brute sixwingman (Baryhexapterus agrius) and the twig sixwingman (Leptohexapterus bacteriasoma).
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Heytomemeimhome's avatar

So legacy...does that mean you rebooted this project then?