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Description
The Deplodon is a genus of eurypterid descendent that adapted to live in a deepsea cavern that became cut off during the late Silurian. This Eurypterid, a member of the Mixopteridae family, experienced many unique selective pressures to adapt to the maze of undersea tunnels that the species now inhabits.

The cavern mostly contained heavily armoured arthropods (with one notable exception) so the small population of Mixopterids evolved their front arms into vicious crushing jaws similar to the modified front limbs of centipede's. These deadly jaws have been adapted to crush the exoskeletons of the other species that inhabit these caves.

It's jaw strength rivals that if the T.rex, able to bite through steel.

Since these caverns are vast and finding prey species is rare, the Depladons need to eat whenever they can. The claws and deadly tail have evolved for defense against the one creature that is large enough and smart enough to feed on Depladons. This is partly the reason why they have grown so large, nearly 30 feet, to be less appetizing to their main predator (which will also be given it's own profile).

Their complex eyes function well in darkness, as the only source of light are the occasional small cave openings and bioluminescent brachiopods and magma flows.

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My speculative take on the bizarre Eurypterid monster featured in the 1980s SciFi horror film "Deep Star Six". This creature emerged after scientists make contact with a sealed off ocean trench that has been isolated for millions of years.

I only tweaked its design a little bit on the claws. I really am a fan of the design, particularly the weird armored mouth hiding the hermit crab-like eyes. I thought this could possibly have evolved from the grasping limbs of Eurypterids in the Mixopteridae family, as they were already spiny and used for grasping, so a pressure to feed on larger and stronger food could push them to transform these arms into a shorter tougher crushing structures. The spines could even be adapted into teeth.

In the film the Depladon has quite a flexible neck and very long, human-proportioned arms, which I tried to retain. This beast is almost humanoid at times, being able to rear back on its snake-like metastoma (tail) and swivel its prostoma (head) around while moving its arms like they are on ball-and-socket joints.

The name Depladon doesn't seem to mean anything that I could find in Greek or Latin, but Diplodon could refer to its two large mouth parts.

Silhouette by pixabay.com/users/anaterate-23…

Description
The Deplodon is a genus of eurypterid descendent that adapted to live in a deepsea cavern that became cut off during the late Silurian. This Eurypterid, a member of the Mixopteridae family, experienced many unique selective pressures to adapt to the maze of undersea tunnels that the species now inhabits.

The cavern mostly contained heavily armoured arthropods (with one notable exception) so the small population of Mixopterids evolved their front arms into vicious crushing jaws similar to the modified front limbs of centipede's. These deadly jaws have been adapted to crush the exoskeletons of the other species that inhabit these caves.

It's jaw strength rivals that if the T.rex, able to bite through steel.

Since these caverns are vast and finding prey species is rare, the Depladons need to eat whenever they can. The claws and deadly tail have evolved for defense against the one creature that is large enough and smart enough to feed on Depladons. This is partly the reason why they have grown so large, nearly 30 feet, to be less appetizing to their main predator (which will also be given it's own profile).

Their complex eyes function well in darkness, as the only source of light are the occasional small cave openings and bioluminescent brachiopods and magma flows.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My speculative take on the bizarre Eurypterid monster featured in the 1980s SciFi horror film "Deep Star Six". This creature emerged after scientists make contact with a sealed off ocean trench that has been isolated for millions of years.

I only tweaked its design a little bit on the claws. I really am a fan of the design, particularly the weird armored mouth hiding the hermit crab-like eyes. I thought this could possibly have evolved from the grasping limbs of Eurypterids in the Mixopteridae family, as they were already spiny and used for grasping, so a pressure to feed on larger and stronger food could push them to transform these arms into a shorter tougher crushing structures. The spines could even be adapted into teeth.

In the film the Depladon has quite a flexible neck and very long, human-proportioned arms, which I tried to retain. This beast is almost humanoid at times, being able to rear back on its snake-like metastoma (tail) and swivel its prostoma (head) around while moving its arms like they are on ball-and-socket joints.

The name Depladon doesn't seem to mean anything that I could find in Greek or Latin, but Diplodon could refer to its two large mouth parts.

Silhouette by pixabay.com/users/anaterate-23…