Creature:Aurum/Physiology

Physiology
Below in this next section, you will find information on the Aurix's physical appearance, and explanations of things from their skeleton all the way to each of their senses.

Skeleton


The Aurix possess a simple skeletal structure, capable of simple abuse without breaking. This however, is not to say that their skeletal structure is brittle.

The Aurix skeleton is typical of a regular-old creature would have. The skeleton consists of 28 vertebrae from the neck to the end of the tail/beginning of the scythe stinger, with only two vertebrae in the neck, nine making up the ribcage, and seventeen in the tail. The tentacle-arms do not possess a single bone within them, as the Aurix rely strictly on muscles to move their manipulators.

The skull however, is worth mention. It had for millennia been long, consisting of two seperate bones which had eventually fused to strengthen both, which were the skull itself and the proboscis, used in the Aurix's old hemophagic tendencies. Eventually after many many centuries of evolution, the proboscis bone melted away, leaving a gargantuan hole in the front of the skull, where a mouth formed instead. This mouth, known as a razor gullet, was full of twelve razor-sharp teeth, which had actually been adapted barbs off the proboscis, that had flanked the proboscis to help aid in battle. This too has melted away however, leading to a far more useful tusked trap mouth, which sits in roughly the same hollow spot. This large hollow remains to some extent however, leading to them still being included in the Therocoelognathus genus. Another point of interest is the eyes, which are set into eye socket bones, but curiously, these are not attached to the skull at all and instead float within the fleshy eyestalks which extend outwards, up, and forward from the skull itself.

Aurix walk bipedally, walking on two legs that extend straight down due to a bird-hip style pelvis, which they are balanced upon by their tentacle-arms and tail, although the tail now typically extends over their heads much like a scorpion's. These feet are very much like miniature Tyrannosaurus' feet, and possess very little climbing ability, although they are capable of weak climbing by using their tentacle-arms to wrap around tree branches or other things and then digging their toes into whatever's around and pushing themselves up with their legs while pulling themselves up with their feet. It is interesting to note that they still possess both pelvic and anal fins, which are leftover remnants from their ancient seafaring ancestors.

The tail bones are designed to allow the tail to comfortably rest while curled over the top of the head, which comes to a dangerous end found in the form of a curved and somewhat sharp extended bone stinger. This bone is not hollow as one might think, and therefore does not sport venom, but is rather used for slashing and stabbing. The tail has become rather stiff and inflexible in most directions in order to allow the tail to sting forward more powerfully, but is capable of being uncurled and held flat. This is typically held in this manner during swimming.

Musculatory System
The Aurix musculatory system is far from fancy or spectacular. Typical muscles criss-cross areas, although more muscles inhabit the mouth than your typical creature, from a time when they possessed movable teeth used to push food down into the esophagus (many of these muscles are now unused and atrophied). Muscles exist that are more powerful in the tail, and although once used for their main propulsion system through water, it is now typically all used for a powerful strike in their bone scythe stingers, which have become their main line of offense.

Circulatory System
The Aurix circulatory system is also fairly uninteresting, although it should be noted that they possess both full-fledged lungs and weaker gills, which typically remain closed, as Aurix are not often found in water. These gills however stem from their times as fish, and allow them highly extended time underwater, although they tend to need to gulp down large breaths of air anyhow due to the point that these gills have grown weak over their years as terrestrial creatures, and now do not allow enough oxygen into their system during their breathing attempts to allow them much activity, as they were last in full use when the Aurix were only cat-sized.

Brain & Nerve Center
The Aurix have become extremely intelligent over time, with the approximate intelligence of a dolphin. Although they had long spent their time in the protection of schools, and then in packs known as cetes, they have since separated into even more family-oriented pods, ruled by an alpha male and alpha female. These groups, however, are capable of becoming significantly larger than the old cetes, with the cetes only being able to contain 30 members while the batteries (the new term for a pod of Aurix) can now hold up to 50 members. Although they once held colonies, first in a porous rock in the Kelp Forest, then in the coral tethers beneath the corals of the Coral Reef, and finally upon a horse-sized Titan Ray swimming the oceans around the Coral Reef, they eventually worked their way into a large Tidal Pool area close to shore, where they hadn't possessed a colony in some time. They try to protect their young as well as other members with their lives, and are less likely to leave their old, sick, and dying behind, and instead are likely to stay as a pod and protect them by driving off the would-be predators. They have also recently begun protecting their deceased from the various brilliantly-colored Featherhead Gulls that roam the beach that makes up their home.

Digestive System
The digestive system are pretty typical of an animal, although the Aurix possess only a stomach and one set of intestines. They also possess a Blood Processor, not found in many species on other worlds, which is specifically designed to process all the nutrients out of a strictly-blood diet. This works essentially in the way an appendix does, which processes the chitin armor of arthropods. The stomach acids have grown powerful enough to properly process chitin, although are still incapable of processing metals like the Human's stomach can. The intestine works like a big intestine, and is filled with various microorganisms which help break down nutrients and absorb them into the body. The Aurix are known for feeding exclusively on only two species, although they do usually scavenge off of any dead opponents they have recently killed. These two species are:

The Crawlers, a species of beach-dwelling merostomatan creatures belonging to the lesser-known Xenosura genus, which are known for possessing various traits of other types of merostomata, including traits found in horseshoe crabs and eurypterids.

The Rockscales, a strange organism possessing rock-like armor plating on its upper shell. These beings wash ashore often on the beach, where they are eaten by Aurix, Clawgrips, and Skullbeaks, but it has recently been discovered that they are not as sessile as once believed, as they seem to eventually crawl up the beach into the forest, where they settle down once more. The reasons behind this are still unknown, as is the exact genus these organisms belong to.

Respiratory System
Aurix belong to a unique type of reptilians, which possess both gills and lungs, allowing them to breathe properly in both environments, although they prefer to spend their time on land, only returning to their aquatic roots on increasingly rare occasions. Both gills and lungs are fully developed, although the gills are considered too weak for indefinite water breathing as they are built more for cat-sized creatures, whereas the Aurix have become dog-sized. The gills possess flaps that are typically closed while on land in order to prevent their drying out, and many Aurix never even get the chance to use the muscles that operate them, although these muscles are controlled by the subconcious, preventing them from drowning due to lack of experience with them.

Senses
The Aurix hunt particularly by sight alone, as most of their other senses remain weak and unadapted. Aurixan eyes are set within thick eyestalks, with the eyes themselves capable of cat-like chromatic vision, with focusing allowing them to see up to a half-mile away, although not in tramendous detail. These eyes have also become capable of sight so long as there is some form of light source, much like human eyes.

Aurix also possess simple nerve endings to allow them to know generally how cold or warm an area is to prevent both overheating and freezing, which is good considering the fact that they are cold-blooded.

Along the sides of their head are located several ampullae of lorenzini; specialized jelly-filled canals which open to the surface by a pore in the skin and end blindly in clusters of small pockets full of electroreceptor cells. These are used to detect objects (typically living objects) through the use of electroreception.

Other senses they possess include simple internal ears (primitive lizard ears), basic magnetite sensors for magnetoception, and very weak extra-sensory perception, used specifically to detect things like earthquakes or huge storms up to an hour before they happen.

Evolutions
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