Hammerhead
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- Mobile Life
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- Foragers
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- Hammerhead (tentatively Panoplia hammerhead). An armored, herd-dwelling, territorial herbivore with a powerful ram.
- 1. Hammer head
- Challenges intruders on its territory, especially other hammerheads. Displays its pectoral fins and closes its enamel head shield before attacking.
- 2. Jet propulsion
- Spiracles behind the eyes feed into a jet channel with internal gills. The jet drives the hammerhead's sudden rams.
- 3. Large brain
- Floats in a protective cyst. The central eye sees color, while two smaller motion-sensitive eyes guide ramming.
- 4. Grazing jaw
- The muscular vertical jaw suggests a diet of sponges, kelps, tunicates, and possibly crushed coral. The need to protect a grazing area may have evolved the hammerhead's territoriality.
- 5. Practice behavior?
- Hammerheads ram coral domes. The adaptive benefit is unclear - perhaps toughening their shields.
- Advise caution, especially when piloting vehicles. May have social cognition comparable to Earth’s ungulates, some of which were extremely dangerous to humans. Ramming areas (called leks) are a major source of ocean noise.
On the wiki
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