dino dossier Fan Dossier: ANOMALOCARIS (aka Terror Shrimp)

[Bhorius]

This is my fifth dossier! From now on, I will strive to make every 5th dossier I upload an aquatic creature. 

Without further ado, hope you like this! 

 

Common names: Anomalocaris, Terror Shrimp 

Species: Animalocaris Sclerosomata

Group: Invertebrates 

Time Period: Early-Mid Cambrian

Diet: Carnivore 

Temperament: Reactive 

 

Tamable: yes 

Ridable: no 

Role/Utility: Autonomous Arthropod Harvesting

 

WILD: Roaming the shallow waters near the Island's many sandy beaches, Anomalocaris Sclerosomata is a relatively small yet deadly aquatic predator. It attacks anything smaller than itself, constricting its prey with its powerful spiked tentacle-like appendages that grow near its mouth in an attempt to inflict death by crushing or impaling the victim's vitals, then sucking the nutritious bodily fluids out of any hole it can find, turning the corpse into a crumpled husk. Such gruesome eating habits have earned this creature its somewhat undeserved nickname among the survivors: Terror Shrimp.

 

DOMESTICATED: Because of its strange shape and behavior, the survivors have developed a mixed relationship with Anomalocaris Sclerosomata. While it does not see humans as prey, it is almost as long as some are tall, so it will fight if it feels threatened by them. Actions perceived as a threat include the simple act of touching the fragile flexible lobes on the sides of its body, so sometimes swimmers can be completely caught of guard by this creature eviscerating them out of nowhere. On the other hand, despite being one of the most primitive predators in existence, Anomalocaris appears to be intelligent enough to be tamable. If carefully approached and fed, it seems to remember those who have treated it well, and can serve as a useful autonomous marine goods gatherer. 

 

KNOWN INFORMATION: Anomalocaris Sclerosomata propels itself through the water by undulating its side lobes. While it is not the fastest creature in its ecosystem, its speed is enough to catch careless fish, as well as its favorite prey - Trilobites. Anomalocaris's flat body shape allows it to enter the shallowest areas, so the Trilobites' only hope of escaping it is to crawl ashore, where they often become food for other creatures. Unlike what was assumed based on fossils, the main body of Anomalocaris is chitinous and hard, including its grappling appendages, which serves as yet another great adaptation for hunting its amphibious relatives. This is how most humans use domesticated Terror Shrimp: while it normally attacks fish as well, it can be trained to only hunt other arthropoda and gather the creatures' chitin, as well as any oil and pearls they might have accumulated in their bodies. And should it get hurt, this strange predator's unique physiology allows it to digest the chitin it has gathered to quickly repair holes in its own carapace! 

 

 

 

Description and additional mechanics info (NOT included in the actual dossier): Anomalocaris Sclerosomata is a primitive arthropod creature of the Dinocarida group. It has a segmented worm-like body, which is also quite flat, being widest around the middle and becoming narrower towards both ends, though to a lesser degree towards the front. Each segment has flexible lobes protruding from each side of its body, a lobe on both sides per segment. These lobes are used for swimming, making wave-like motions, akin to those of rays. On the front end of the body is the head with two large compound eyes on stalks on the top side, a pineapple ring-shaped mouth on the bottom side, and two grasping appendages with barb-like spikes, which are about 1/5th the length of the body, protruding from the front. It is almost as long as an average human is tall. 

 

Anomalocaris will usually be found near beaches drifting through water, up until the point it finds a suitable target, whereupon it will dash towards that target, grab it with its arms and attempt to crush it to death. The Anomalocaris usually attacks Trilobites and Megapiranhas, as well as Coelacanths and Sabertooth Salmons, but only those of limited size. Should humans or bigger Coels/Salmons touch it, Anomalocaris will attack, however, it cannot grab these larger creatures with its arms, so instead will use its basic attack to deal with them. It will also sometimes start killing its usual prey with basic attacks, in which case Coels and Trilobites have a chance to flee, because the attack inflicts some knockback. Anomalocaris will also attempt to attack other small creatures that might end up in the water, such as Compies, Dodos and Ichthyornises, and can, in fact, grab them. 

The Terror Shrimp will flee without fighting from larger predators, such as Sarco, Kapro or Megalodon, who do indeed see it as their prey. 

It will not flee from Mantas or Ichthies who also don't attack it, and won't fight them when coming into body contact.

Anomalocaris can be tamed (nonviolently) by feeding it regular meat or fish meat, similar to an Ichthy. Prime Meat will have the same effect as its regular counterparts, however, Spoiled Meat will be more effective, similar to scorpions. The creature's favorite food during the tame is Chitin, however, it restores twice the Food compared to Spoiled Meat, so to feed it Chitin in regular intervals, it must get twice as hungry as it should have for being interested in Spoiled Meat (meaning the player will see the "Wait until it's hungry again!" message when holding Chitin in their 0 slot even if the feeding prompt would have already reappeared if the food were different). During this process the Anomalocaris will still attack if touched, the tame thereby failing. Unlike the Ichthy, the Anomalocaris is not curious with humans at all, so even if not touched and thus not dangerous, it might wander off in some undesirable direction, leading players into Piranhas, Mantas or even Megalodons. The Terror Shrimp is immune to the effects of Bug Repellant. 

 

Once tamed, the Anomalocaris can be used as an autonomous arthropod killing/harvesting machine. To enable this mode, the player must set the shrimp to wander, and aggression level should be set to anything other than Passive. When set to aggressive, the Anomalocaris will attack any of its natural prey, including fish. However, when set to Neutral or Attack Your Target, it will only ever target Trilobites and Eurypterids. Upon killing them, Anomalocaris will harvest them, storing Chitin, Pearls and Oil in its inventory. It appears immune to Eurypterid poison, which certainly helps tip the scales in its favor. While in this harvesting mode, Anomalocaris will flee the same predators it did before (this list now includes the Manta who will attack tamed Anomalocaris), as well as anything else if its health falls below 40%. If Wandering is disabled again, however, Anomalocaris will fight according to its current aggression level, just like any other creature. 

Anomalocaris's powerful eyes allow it to see much further than most other aquatic creatures can, so its aggro range can be surprisingly large, both when wild and harvesting/set on aggressive.

 

When wild, it can already have an inventory with some chitin, oil and pearls in it, but the number of these items it limited to 4 oil, 3 pearls of any type, and 10 chitin. 

Another unique mechanic available to the Terror Shrimp is rapid chitin digestion. When below 75% health, Anomalocaris will start consuming chitin from its inventory. Every consumed chitin piece restores 2% of its maximum health, however the intervals between consuming it must be 5 seconds at least, and the creature must be missing at least 100 Food points. Chitin can be force fed to Anomalocaris by pressing "REMOTE USE ITEM" while in its inventory, however, same requirements must be met. 

 

 

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Check out my other dossiers if you haven't seen those yet! (There are also no pictures, might appear in the future, who knows)

Saurophaganax: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/52464-fan-dossier-saurophaganax/ 

Carcharodontosaurus: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/52468-fan-dossier-carcharodontosaurus/ 

Torvosaurus: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/52472-fan-dossier-torvosaurus/ 

Ouranosaurus: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/53458-fan-dossier-ouranosaurus/

 

 

NOTE: I do realize there are probably dossiers on these animals made by other people, but looking them up would most likely take too long, and anyways, even if the suggested genus of the creature is the same, it doesn't mean the proposed abilities and qualities are. I have NOT seen any other dossier on this forum (except some Community Crunch choice cuts), mostly in order to be perfectly clear and physically incapable of stealing anyone's ideas.