Devorator

The Devorator has doubled in size due to the increase in prey size in its habitats. Its tentacles have grown shorter but more muscular, and it is now capable of crushing prey between its 4 tentacles, before shoving the fragments into its stomach. Its large stomach is now too rigid to push indigestible material out of it, so the organism has evolved the ability to digest mineralised chitin with chitinase. It will incorporate the indigestible minerals into its own armour. However, other items that it is still incapable of digesting, which it cannot use, will be pushed out by small tentacle projections that can move items within the stomach gel.

Much like its ancestor, the Devorator hunts prey constantly, remaining close to the sea floor where its primary prey items live in abundance. Competition between the Devorators and new emerging predator lineages has caused them to wander into the territory of other Devorators more often, and so they have developed even more armour plating, including a third plate-ring, due to the increased danger posed by rivals. Older Devorators possess small mineralised spikes on their armour, gathered from a lifetime of consuming binucleid worms and absorbing minerals from their exoskeletons. These prevent them from being gripped and crushed in fights. Devorators only meet to fight or mate, much like their ancestors. It primarily hunts relatively large armoured prey like the larger Binucleid worms, as it cannot catch faster prey, though it is still somewhat generalistic and will still hunt other prey if it encounters it. In order to keep their large tail fins rigid, a large chitinous internal structure has developed, which fills much of the tail fin.

Devorator Anatomy, with the positions of organs based on a side-view, as well as a front-view at each plate-ring.

Devorators have developed a more advanced heart to keep their large bodies oxygenated, with the ball-shaped organs pumping light purple blood around their bodies. Instead of developing a backbone, the organism has developed 3 notochords, allowing it to continue to move and survive even if 2 are severed or damaged.

Due to the increase in pathogens, especially those specifically afflicting the Carpotestans, the Devorator has developed a simple immune system for combating the growing microbial threat. Its intestine, the end of which has now fused with its air expulsion tube, is well sealed when not in use. Additionally, its filtration membranes, which strain tiny digested prey fragments from its stomach to its intestine, are capable of catching and eliminating pathogens attempting to enter. The only viable entry point is the gill cavity, though the constant water flow often causes microbes to simply be washed through the expulsion tube. Its eyes have developed a thin layer of transparent purple tissue, forming a simple lens, which in conjunction with its forward-facing UV emitter bulbs, derived from UV patches, has allowed it to perceive differences between its prey items by perceiving UV light that reflects off of their bodies. It can recognise the forms of scythe worms, for instance, allowing it to approach them from behind and avoid their dangerous cutting implements.