The Beast of Hidden Lake

Remember this guy? [link]

It's in 3D now.
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One Of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days where you just can’t focus on your job? It could be that you didn’t sleep well the night before, or maybe your morning coffee tasted like lakewater, or perhaps it’s because your job requires you to wade knee-deep in alien guts in the name of science.

No amount of disinfectant will completely wash out the funk from today’s experiment. I’m sure that if we hadn’t brought our own air supply, we could have easily followed our noses to the star walrus that festered on the far shores of Hidden Lake. It wasn’t fresh by any means. We had to drive off the bottlenecks and thraxes that had gathered around to feast on the entrails. And that was all that was left, really. Organs of the sort I had never seen in my life: a thick bag lined on all inside surfaces with grinding teeth, a stomach-like sac that branched into several blind pockets, some loose digesta (this went straight into a jar, of course), and the tattered remains of a mouth and throat. Several frayed and gnawed-on bundles of fiber were all that remained of the skeleton. The blood was the same pinkish color as the surrounding red plants.

For this special occasion, our own medic was here to help us reconstruct the digestive system. Luo had taken the place of Rashid, who had stayed behind to work on the plumbing. He swears he isn’t squeamish, but something was definitely making him uncomfortable today. If anything, the dissection seemed to put him at ease. He was much more agitated on the way there, fretting over the fabric of his suit, checking again and again for flaws in the tubing, and looking anywhere but ahead. It’s baffling the way he acts sometimes. Maybe he’s just having one of those days.

- Erin Carellos (Day 9)


Taxa Notes – Star Walrus

The star walrus was one of the first species we encountered, but its lifestyle remained a mystery until we discovered its habitat a week later. With the help of a dissected carcass and hours of field observation conducted from a safe distance, we now have a better understanding of how it lives, hunts, and eats.

Everything about this apex predator is adapted to life in a buoyphyte-lake habitat. Its dark blue skin renders it nearly invisible in low light conditions. Golf ball-like dimples cover the body to create turbulence and reduce drag. The bottom pair of mouthparts form rigid tusks, ideal for breaking through the floating mat. The other four pairs are flexible and toothed; these serve multiple purposes. First, they can point forward to give the body a hydrodynamic form. Second, the tentacles’ sheer strength can handle the toughest of beasts, including members of their own species. Finally, a star walrus can ambush surface grazers by tearing out large chunks of the mat from below. The victim would not stand a chance once it’s fallen into the gaping maw where there once was earth.

How does a jawless animal incapable of swallowing manage to feed on such large prey? The creature can evert its mouth up to two feet. This ability is absolutely necessary for transporting prey to the muscular first stomach, where the teeth that line the walls can grind it into a digestible form. The bolus then moves into the glandular second stomach, while fibrous skeletons, beaks, and other indigestible parts are regurgitated.


Terra Firma

So, I read Alex’s report on the walrus things. What’s this about ambushing surface grazers from below? He made no mention of that when they were traipsing across Hidden Lake. It’s time to put my foot down. No more tours of the lake’s surface. All excursions will be on terra firma from now on.

- Michael Vander (Day 10)
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- Excerpt from Odyssey

Read about Hidden Lake's unique ecosystem here - [link]

Materials: super sculpey, armature wire, foil, wood base, and acrylic paints. It's about a foot long.

Progress:
1 - [link]
2 - [link]