THE ARTIFACT

Log 8, Mirror Heads. While exploring the Crystal Valley I saw something bright and gleaming not too far away, getting closer I discovered that it was a pack of large longnecked creatures with iridescent heads. I will call these animals mirror heads due to their reflective crowns. Mirror heads are large herbivorous giants that eat plants hanging off the desert’s stone wall, the pattern on their skin helps with blending in against the stone wall, and while this camouflage is effective the giant beaming light that reflects off the head gives their location away. The skull of a mirror head is oblong and acts as a hood to provide shade for the rest of the body. The top of the skull is iridescent and reflects light, the reason for this adaptation is that it mitigates heat absorption thus keeping the head cool. This mirror also doubles as an effective defense, when threatened, individuals will often angle their heads toward the sun to cause even more light to be reflected making it harder for an attacker to see, coupled with the rocky skin pattern means it’s extremely difficult for a predator to spot an individual amongst a heard. That’s not all for this animal’s strange skull though as it acts as a home for a peculiar species cydroped. The dark-skinned cydroped as I’ll call them, is unique as it can photosynthesize. The skin contains chloroplasts with a dark coloration as it absorbs the most sunlight. All cydropeds have cells that react to sunlight, the purpose of these cells changes between species from releasing a natural sunscreen to waking up the animal; I suspect that this species' daylight cells convergently evolved into chloroplasts to capitalize on the mass amounts of sunlight. The dark-skinned cydropeds have a close symbiotic bond with the mirror heads with both coevolving with each other. The ends of the tentacles on the cydropeds are flattened and act like leaves, however, hairlike tendrils come off the sides, these tendrils embed themselves within the skull of a mirror head and inject sugars and nutrients into the bloodstream. In exchange for food, the mirror heads provide protection, easier access to sunlight, and a breeding ground atop their heads. A young mirror head will start with one or two cydropeds provided by the parents, older mirror heads will have up to 30 cydropeds with many dangling off the skull. Two remarkable species indeed and the most extreme form of symbiosis on Murkosia so far. Wait, where’s Ming?

She left saying the light from the mirror heads hurt her eyes

*sigh* Great. She knows how to adjust the brightness on her goggles so she’s just trying to get away from me. Come on Droid, let’s find her before she gets hurt again.