Deepwing Egg Clump

*Titanotagmatapterya amalthea*, the titanic wing-segmented cup of plenty. An enormous arthropod leviathan with a huge tearing beak and a payload of fatty deposits, which it uses to both feed and protect its eggs.

1. Ancient origins The brooder's ancestors, the tagmatapterya (wing-segmented ones), evolved very early in the development of Protean arthropods. Their limbs evolved into paddles, the thorax developed a deep keel, and maxillipeds beneath the mouth transformed into eyes by homeosis. Competition from fish selected for enormous size and thick armor. It is unknown if all the tagmatapterya achieved the deepwing brooder's enormous size, or even surpassed it.

2. Mysterious diet The deepwing brooder's throat is lined with traps for plankton. Filtered water through gill openings at the rear of its thoracic keel. Yet its enormous beak is suited to cracking and tearing. It is possible that the brooder opportunistically feeds on hard prey, including the fluids of titan rockbores, the shells of giant jaws, and fatbergs drifting through the lipid-rich Protean sea.

3. Fertile brooding Deepwing brooders gather layers of oil beneath their outer shell. This oil is released in droplets alongside eggs, acting as a decoy for predators.The decoy eggs do provide the ocean with a tremendous bounty of concentrated nutrients.

4. Deepfall As a strandulate, the deepwing brooder must molt. Molted exoskeletons drop to the sea floor with a lining of lipid-rich grease, providing a feast for dwellers in the hungry abyss.

Assessment: egg broods provide a valuable food supply, if you can locate the true eggs — and survive the competition.