Xibalbarapa ingens

It'd the 16th december and becauseI had enough time today I drawed/painted a bigger picture for the advent calendar.

The shell in which they live is too sick for most predatory animals and because the animals have no much meat they are rarely hunted by apex preators. These giants grow their whole live and develop every year a new layer which makes their shells really massive. Only the upper quarter is inhabited by the animal itself. On the shell sits the rudder, a structure which moves in the current and provide the most efficient intake of organic material. But this material isn't just of secondary interest. More important for Xibalbarapa are the chemical compounds which they use to generate energy. The "stomach" of the animal, which is also the lung, is able to use different elements. In the upper part of the organ the cells mostly need sulfur, while the lower parts have cells which can use methan* and some cells at the end of the "stomach" are able to use even iron. 

The cell organels which make these elements usable where once symbiotic microbes but now they are part of the bigger organism itself

Xibalbarapa is a very slow growing organism. They need up to 100 year for 1m of the shell, that makes them interesting for the climate research on Silvanus.

*at many places the seabed of Xibalba is covered with a ice shield of Methanhydrat.

Silvanus frontpage: hyrotrioskjan.deviantart.com/a…