The oceans aboard the Rhynia are full of life. Native to each Dome are a plethora of unique sea creatures that have had little interaction with migrants from other Domes. While terrestrial environments tend overshadow marine ones in the eyes of explorers, the same cannot be said for Dome 5. The cold, harsh conditions above the water make the sea a welcome refuge. Due to a significant part of the water in Dome 5 being locked away as ice, the overall sealevel is lower than it is in other Domes. This combined with the fact that colder water holds more oxygen makes the oceans of Dome 5 especially fertile and biodiverse.
Of all the wonderful organisms that inhabit the frigid seas of Dome 5, there’s one group that really tends to stand out: the S.A.B.E.Ph’s. Fascinating creatures they are; completely blind and extremely intelligent beings whose echolocating chattering can be heard in nearly every body of water connected to the sea. Their natural curiosity towards us makes them excellent research subjects and their overall approachability has even allowed for a successful tagging profile to be installed.
While their lack of eyes and dull countershading makes many species look rather similar, they display quite some diversity in shapes, sizes and niches. For quite some time, it thought that there were just two types of sabephs: blunt faced- and beaked Sabephs, and that these were natural groups. A closer inspection of certain species however, showed that this is not the case at all. Many of the “blunt faced” sabephs were found to actually be closer to beaked sabephs and the opposite was found for another, while some turned out to belong to families that were neither beaked nor “blunt faced”. This caused a reshuffling of the whole phylogenetic tree of the sabephs, but it has made their history much clearer.
The catalyst of this reshuffle was the brown sabeph (Formerly Aommatopeton tridens, now Sabephium tridens). At roughly 2,5 meters long, this medium sized sabeph doesn’t seem too peculiar except for its skin color. Its blunt head and short muzzle are why it was long placed in the genus Aommatopeton as a close relative to the common sabeph (Aommatopeton vulgaris). Upon closed inspection though, a key difference between the common- and the brown sabeph was found: the upper jaw of the common sabeph has split tips, while that of the brown sabeph has a fused single tip. A following genetic analysis confirmed that the brown sabeph is in fact closer related to beaked sabephs than it is to the common sabeph. It was then placed into its own genus Sabephium and then led to the creation of the new family Sabephiidae. Due to this new insight, many other sabephs got a closer inspection which led to the whole phylogenetic tree being redone.
The brown sabeph is one of the most widespread species and luckily for us, also one of the friendliest, which has led to many individuals having been tagged, providing us with valuable information about their habits. This species feeds on a wide variety of prey items, but appears to generally be less durophagous than common sabephs, which is likely how they manage to exist in many of the same habitats.
Another species that is commonly encountered in coastal waters is the cagebeaked sabeph (Rhynchosabephium carcerostris). It’s name comes from the widened tip of the beak, armed with many pencil shaped pseudoteeth that interlock, which form a cage to trap small prey in. At about 3 meters long, it’s similar in length to its close relative Rhynchosabephium sonotimens, but is more slenderly built and tends to feed closer to the seafloor. Like it’s relative, this beaked sabeph species also seems to be rather shy of boats and no individuals have been tagged as of yet.
One of the largest sabephs also turned out to be one of the oddest. The conetail sabeph (Kenolaemus leiouros) is a 9 meter long leviathan which, as it’s name suggests, has no fluke on the tail. It is completely toothless, save for two small downturned horns on the lower jaw which are only present in males. It’s upper jaw wraps around the lower jaw, creating a tube that prevents the mouth from completely opening. This combined with the large fleshy throat that features long expandable grooves, a smooth tail and many circular scars on the beak has led us to the conclusion that these giants hunt cephalopods by suction feeding in the deep sea. It’s beak has not 2 tips as in Sabephiidae, not 3 as in Aommatopetontidae, but 4 tips: 2 on the lower- and 2 on the upper jaw. These unfused jaw tips and a unique skull configuration are testament to the diversity of sabephs. This giant has been recognised as being of a more ancient lineage than either Aommatopetontidae or Sabephiidae, and was given its own family: the Kenolaemidae, to which 2 more species are believed to belong.
Found in the south of Dome 5, swimming the coastal waters of the continentette Ailidha, is the southern roundfin sabeph (Gyracropteron australis). A small species that mostly feeds on crustaceans and other shellfish that otherwise looks very similar to common sabephs, it has a feature which shows relation to the most unlikely of cousins. It’s elongated protruding chin , places it as a relative of the macroraptorial apex predator: Machairognathus atrox, the axejaw sabeph. Compared to its up to 8 meter long cousin (according to some accounts), the southern roundfin is but a small fry at under 2.5 meters long, but it shares the same chin. However, instead of using their chin to butcher prey, they use it for detecting food in the sediment.
Genetic testing has shown that these “tool-chin” sabephs only evolved quite recently and are rather closely related to the common sabeph, so these peculiar sabephs have been placed in the subfamily Machairognathinae, within Aommatopetontidae. Up to 3 species are estimated to belong to the genus Gyracropteron, but further research is necessary to confirm this.
Curiously, the only observed calve of this species was speckled with a random piebald black, grey and white pattern. It is as of yet unknown if this was just a mutation or if all calves of this species or even other sabephs are also decorated with a pattern. If it wasn’t a mutation and rumours of other patterned sabephs turn out to be true, the reason why is a mystery.
The axejaw is not the only macroraptorial sabeph however, and divers of Ulysses-vessel had to find this out the hard way. During one of their dives, they were approached by a large sabeph with a scary grin. Large conical interlocking pseudoteeth lined the outside of its mouth, but did not attack them. They had heard the story of Quint Brody from Rafelman-vessel carelessly swimming with an axejaw and assumed this one was friendly like nearly all other sabephs. Foolish they were, for if they had paid attention to its vocalisations, they would’ve known that it was not trying to communicate. No, instead it’s chatter clearly indicated that it was investigating them as if one determines whether a dish is edible.
They attempted to tag the creature in the tail fluke as is custom. The tail fluke of a sabeph has been proven to have much feeling, so it was chosen as the best place to place a tag. However, as they pierced the fluke, the predator led out a scream and rapidly turned around to defend itself. With one swift bite that produced an audible jaw pop, it amputated the arm of the man that put the tag on and took part of his torso with it. It was quickly shot through the fin with a harpoon and fled back into the deep. The poor bloke who had his arm bitten off died of blood loss before he was even brought back on board.
The individual known as 5-U.36, shall forever be known as the first sabeph to have killed a human and still bears the tip of the harpoon stuck in her fin.
The megamouth sabeph (Daspletopeton robustus) they called it, for it had a gape larger than other sabeph. At 5 meters long with a ferocious temper, it’s a dangerous predator and one of only a handful sabephs to pose a danger to humans.
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