Musculoptera branchilura

M. branchilura is a species from Panhydra. It's a member of the family "muscupteridae," the muscle wings. The name comes from the fact that its 6 small fins and large dorsal fin are pure muscle. Picture your tongue, and remove the skin and musuc off it, and you would have the fins of the muscupterids. These fins can contract, fan out, flatten, and anything your tongue can do, making them very agile, maneuverable species.

The species name of this muscupterid, branchilura, means "gill mouth." This creature is a filter feeder, filtering food from gill-like structures on either side of it's head. The muscles on these gills can be retracted, and the gills shut.

Panhydra is very far away from it's homestar, Kapcee. This caps the whole surface of Panhydra in a mineral rich ice sheet, miles deep at even the equator. This means that Panhydra is very cold. Creatures nearer to the surface who can't rely on the heat from the core keep warm by using their huge muscle packs to generate electricity and heat. This means rarely a muscupterid can be seen floating motionless. Their thin antennae allow them to sense the difference in temperature of their bodies and the water, and thus can decide how fast they should move.

In the cold, dark waters, most eyes have been designes to see only low frequency light, from yellow-orange to even microwaves(and in a few species, though no muscupterids, radio waves.).