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Description
The original sketch.

Please note the this animal is part of a "Burgess Shale" of Beta Colibri, it, however, survived to the present in the form of its descendants.
It is called Cryptobranch, because it can retract its gills inside the body to protect them against other animals. Because the entire body is protected by sclerites, little mineralized plates, the three feather-like gills are the most vulnerable organ of this animal.
This peculiar animal is not blind, it sports a set of three light sensitive pits, which is better than nothing. Its predecessors retracted their gills after being atttacked by another animal, but this particular cryptobranch evolved a way how to avoid damage of its gills almost completely, all thanks to these simple sensoric organs. When a shadow creeps over, simple muscles pull the gills inside the body and the blood is forced into the body cavity. when the danger is over, the blood is pumped into the gills again to inflate them.
Though it looks like a sedetary lifeform, the underside of the body is free of sclerites, so the animal can use its muscular "leg" to crawl slowly along the seabed much like slugs and snails on Earth. It has three pairs of fused metanephridia, three single-chambered hearts which beat in clockwise sequence, suck the blood from the body cavity and force it to the gills.
The oxygen-rich blood then races back into the body cavity. (the blood pressure is all that keeps the gills inflated)
It has a simple nervous system composed of six ganglia with an associated vertical nerve. The ganglia are connected in a ring around the esophagus.
Its digestive system is fairly simple, consisting of retractable esophagus, sack-like stomach and simple gut with the rectum on top of the animal.
It also has three ovaries and three testicles, though there never are both of those active at the same time to avoid cloning itself and maintain genetic diversity.
The Cryptobranch is a predatory animal, albeit small, being only 1 - 3 inches tall, but it's a real wolf in sheep's skin of the ancient seas on Beta Colibri. To actually notice it can move, you'd have to speed up a video recording, but such speed is enough for the Cryptobranch. As it slowly crawls along the sea bed, the bare underside also functions as a sensory organ. When it senses a movement in the sand, the end of the esophagus seals tightly and then it finds its way down through the sand to reach an unsuspecting worm which is then quickly sucked in.

Description
The original sketch.

Please note the this animal is part of a "Burgess Shale" of Beta Colibri, it, however, survived to the present in the form of its descendants.
It is called Cryptobranch, because it can retract its gills inside the body to protect them against other animals. Because the entire body is protected by sclerites, little mineralized plates, the three feather-like gills are the most vulnerable organ of this animal.
This peculiar animal is not blind, it sports a set of three light sensitive pits, which is better than nothing. Its predecessors retracted their gills after being atttacked by another animal, but this particular cryptobranch evolved a way how to avoid damage of its gills almost completely, all thanks to these simple sensoric organs. When a shadow creeps over, simple muscles pull the gills inside the body and the blood is forced into the body cavity. when the danger is over, the blood is pumped into the gills again to inflate them.
Though it looks like a sedetary lifeform, the underside of the body is free of sclerites, so the animal can use its muscular "leg" to crawl slowly along the seabed much like slugs and snails on Earth. It has three pairs of fused metanephridia, three single-chambered hearts which beat in clockwise sequence, suck the blood from the body cavity and force it to the gills.
The oxygen-rich blood then races back into the body cavity. (the blood pressure is all that keeps the gills inflated)
It has a simple nervous system composed of six ganglia with an associated vertical nerve. The ganglia are connected in a ring around the esophagus.
Its digestive system is fairly simple, consisting of retractable esophagus, sack-like stomach and simple gut with the rectum on top of the animal.
It also has three ovaries and three testicles, though there never are both of those active at the same time to avoid cloning itself and maintain genetic diversity.
The Cryptobranch is a predatory animal, albeit small, being only 1 - 3 inches tall, but it's a real wolf in sheep's skin of the ancient seas on Beta Colibri. To actually notice it can move, you'd have to speed up a video recording, but such speed is enough for the Cryptobranch. As it slowly crawls along the sea bed, the bare underside also functions as a sensory organ. When it senses a movement in the sand, the end of the esophagus seals tightly and then it finds its way down through the sand to reach an unsuspecting worm which is then quickly sucked in.