Vemachondrpiscia
Vemachondrpiscia
The vermachondrpiscia are worm-like jawed animals with scales, two-chambered hearts, and skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. The skeleton is made from a rubbery cartilage like a tissue, lighter and more flexible than bone. The jaw is not attached to the cranium.The jaw, vertebrae, and gill arches, "skeletal" element which extra support due to heavier physical stresses and need for extra strength, have a layer tiny crystalline hexagonal plates of silica arranged in a mosaic, giving these structures much of the same strength found in real and much heavier bony tissue.
They extract oxygen from seawater as it passes over their gills. While at rest, most pump water over their gills to ensure a constant supply of oxygenated water.
The blood and other tissue of chondrpiscians is isotonic to their marine environments, allowing them to be in osmotic balance with the seawater. This adaptation prevents most chondrpiscians from surviving in fresh water, and they are therefore confined to a marine environment. A few exceptions to this rule exist, and have developed a way to adopt kidney function to excrete large amounts of urea.
Vermachondrpiscian teeth are not attached to the jaw, but embedded in the flesh, and in many species are constantly replaced throughout the animal's life. All chondrpiscians have multiple rows of teeth along the edges of their upper and lower jaws. New teeth grow continuously in a groove just inside the mouth and move forward from inside the mouth on a "conveyor belt" formed by the skin in which they are anchored.
The skin is covered with dermal teeth, arranged in a complex dermal corset made of flexible collagenous fibres and silica scales, arranged as a helical network surrounding their body. This works as an outer skeleton, providing attachment for their swimming muscles and thus saving energy. Their dermal teeth give them hydrodynamic advantages as they reduce turbulence when swimming.
Sex is caried out via ovaparious spawning.
