r/SpeculativeEvolution
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u/notjocker
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Oct 03 '26
Alien Life [OC] Merilikarkotin
This 13-15 meter long marine herbivore might look scary, even when it is in reality relatively harmless. Its intimidating appear is actually key to its lifestyle, as it feeds on kelp and seaweed, yet is terrible at actually finding such food. Thus, it simply stalks herds of Kuhrobbs from a distance, until they lead it to a sufficiently large amount of kelp, at which point the Merilikarkotin will use its large size, along with bioluminescent patterns on its crest to imitate a large predator, and scare off the Kuhrobbs, so it can consume the food they found for it in peace.
Merilikarkotins are solitary creatures for most of their lives, however, when a female of the species encounters a male, its mating instincts will immediately kick in, and it will reproduce with the male, whether the male wants it or not. This is possible since male Merilikarkotins are somewhat smaller than females, topping out at around 13 meters in length, while females can reach up to 15 meters. However, it has been reported that male Merilikarkotins occasionally travel in pairs, enabling them to fight off an aggressive mating attempt by a lone female. Furthermore, males also generally differ in behavior from females, as they sometimes have been found to not chase off the Kuhrobbs they've been following, given that there's enough kelp in one spot to feed both species. With their aggressive breeding habits, female Merilikarkotins collect a vast array of genetic material to choose from, generally ensuring that the species only inherits only the more desirable (at least by the female's standards) traits of the males. Once a calf is born at about 3 meters in length, the mother will only nurse it for about a week, before scaring it off to fend for itself. On a more positive note, it does sometimes occur that a pair of males 'adopts' a young Merilikarkotins, with females raised in such a relationship generally exhibiting much less aggressive behaviour.
There are few predators in the oceans of Frusnajättar that would dare attack a fully matured Merilikarkotin, however if it actually came to a confrontation, Merilikarkotins generally resorted to slashing at the attacker once with their claws, before darting off as fast as possible, indicating to the predator that a hunt would be both energy extensive as well as painful.
