It’s #Spectember once again, and looking at what’s left of the speculative evolution submissions you all gave me several years ago… I’m actually kind of burnt out on them at this point.
The ones that are left now are a bit too broad, or are just things I currently have no good ideas for — so I’m finally officially calling it quits on that particular batch of prompts. I still won’t be accepting new ideas for the time being; instead this year I’m just going to have some fun with my own concepts.
So! Let’s start off with…
Spectember 2026 #01: Cave Turtle
Voragochelys phantasma is a small turtle descended from present-day softshells, living exclusively in a single deep isolated cave system.
Only around 10cm long (2.5″), it’s completely pigmentless and blind, with tiny vestigial eyes covered by skin. A keen sense of smell and sensitive barbels on its jaw help it navigate in total darkness and locate prey such as smaller crustaceans and fish. It uses large paddle-like forelimbs to swim and haul itself over rocks, while its hindlimbs are highly reduced.
Like its present-day relatives it’s capable of absorbing some oxygen through its thin skin, and also via “pharyngeal breathing” — the inside of its mouth and throat are lined with numerous fleshy projections that massively increase the surface area and act like gills, allowing for gas exchange when water is pumped in and out. Its incredibly low metabolic rate means it can remain fully submerged almost indefinitely, sometimes barely moving for years at a time.
Females lay small clutches of eggs once every decade or so in rock crevices just out of the water, and similarly to the present-day pig-nosed turtle their hatching is triggered by seasonal flooding.