Sunday 19 November 2017

PrehiScotInktoberfest Day 19: Ainiktozoon loganens

PrehiScotInktoberfest hops back to Silurian Scotland, where unspeakable, indescribable THINGS once dwelt in the ancient waters of what is now Lesmagahow...



Ainiktozoon loganense ("Logan's Enigmatic Animal"). What ARE you? Back when it was first discovered n 1937, Zoon was believed to be some sort of early chordate (backboned animal). Nowadays, Zoon is considered a Thylacocephalan: a strange, mysterious order of arthropods which are tenuously related to crustaceans. 


Among the downright weird things with this beastie are its eyes - or rather, its eye: they're compound eyes, but whereas most insects have at least two, Thylacocephalans have all their eye organs clumped together, like those wraparound sunglasses skiers wear, or a Starfleet Chief Engineer's visor. It also has an unusually tall, flat carapace, which marks it as unusual even among Thylacocephalans. The whole thing looks like some eldritch alien organism that would request any nearby Bene Gesserit Witches decant the immediate area.




"Zoon?"

"Aye Zoon?"

"Ye ever wonder juist whit we are? Ah mean, leukit us. Wur bizarre. Are we hings that shoudna be?"

"Aye Zoon, aye time. Dinnae fash yersel aboot it."

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