iridescence – Nix Illustration

Spectember 2023 #05: Shiny Mammal

Someone who identified themself only as “Hanna” requested a “mammal that’s shiny and iridescent like some insects and spiders”:

A shaded sketch of a speculative semiaquatic hairy armadillo. It has a wide armor carapace with a green-blue-purple iridescent sheen, a pig-like snout, wide paddle-like hands and feet, and a short tail.

Lustrophractus hannae is a relative of modern hairy armadillos that has adapted for a semiaquatic lifestyle.

About 40cm long (~16″), its unusually shiny carapace originally evolved thanks to its ancestors’ burrowing habits. Much like golden moles and some snakes, these armadillos’ scutes and hairs developed microridges that reduced friction and repelled dirt particles, with the side effect of becoming strikingly iridescent – and, conveniently, also rather water repellent, enabling Lustrophractus’ lineage to take up aquatic omnivorous foraging habits.

The iridescence also serves a defensive function, using a bright flash of color to startle and confuse predators.

Cambrian Explosion #49: …Some Sort Of Euarthropod?

The major groups of the euarthropods are the chelicerates, mandibulates, and the extinct artiopodans, but there were some Cambrian species that still can’t be easily fitted in to any of those lineages.

Cambrian Explosion Month #22: Phylum Annelida – Plumes and Tails

Annelids in the Cambrian Period were mainly represented by bristle worm polychaetes, with most known species belonging to early stem lineages. And while more modern-style polychaetes would become abundant during the early Ordovician, the earlier Cambrian forms were still surprisingly diverse.