The Common Snork

The Common Snork

Caposnorkus ichthyosapiens

First described c. 1643 by a Captain Ortega of the Spanish Royal Navy

Biology: These living fossils, like their closest living relatives the Common Smurfs, are actually highly archaic mammals who share common ancestors with the only other living hive species of mammals, naked mole-rats.  Typically a given polity has only one or two "queens" and one or two "kings" - the former being the mother of all drones of the polity and principle religious leader and the latter being the biological father and principle politico-military leader.  As mammals they must breath free oxygen at least once an hour, but they typically build their hives around underwater caches of oxygen, often fed by undersea plants - also their highly evolved respiratory systems or "snorks" allow them to avoid breaking the surface openly, protecting them for avian predators.

There are two known subspecies of the Common Snork, the saltwater C. ichthyosapiens solus and the freshwater C. ichthyosapiens aquatio.

Snorks vary in color substantially - this variation is typically based upon their specific occupation which exposes them to distinct water temperatures, pressures, and impurities to which they are highly susceptible.  They are largely hairless, but apparently certain conditions lead them to develop manes (similar to humans and felines), though biologists have as of yet failed to explain the origins thereof.

Geography: Snorks are native to the waters of and off of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean; they typically refer to their home waters as "Snorkland" and to all non-Snork lands and waters, including the air above those waters, as "outer space."

Polity-Economy-Society: Snorks use a minimally formalized political system in which the democratic proclivities that govern day-to-day matters are frequently overwhelmed by seniority and respect which are believed to result in a hierarchy (very limited) of the breeding-rulers (Governors) and the working masses.  Personal property exists but seems to be limited to services and goods - in apparent imitation of human beings (who Snorks have had limited contact with at least since the time of the European colonization of the Americas, though possibly before) Snorks have adopted the use of garments as well as symbolic currency (mollusk shells, specifically, reminiscent of the use of cowries in the Americas among native American political-economies). Snorks have also successfully domesticated several species of fish and mollusk and the near-sentient close relative of the Snorks, the Snorkosaurus (Snorkosaurus snorkus).  Their level of technological development is fairly contemporary with those of European humans, probably reflecting substantial borrowing and/or trade. Snorks seem to speak a variant of the English language, perhaps a result of later trade and technology dealings with English and Iberian merchants and sailors - there is no clear archaeological or historical evidence that native Americans had significant dealings with the Snorks, however this remains a point of contention in the academic community.