Concussive Collidurags

Submission for the 2019 Creature Cabal

Not much is known about these enormous animals. Throughout most of human history, they have been practically invisible, dwelling in the deepest parts of the ocean. Their diet, sleep schedule, and mating habits are a complete mystery during this time, but there is one night every eighty years when they can be properly studied. On every 958th full moon, they heave their enormous bulks out of the depths to claim a beach. It's still unclear how they tell the time from so far down, but they come in droves to begin a violent ritual.
Thousands of them pair up and begin to haphazardly ram their six-ton bodies into each other. This is theorized to be a competition to claim one-mile stretches of beach, but the loser is often lucky to escape without injury- their bones, while more cartilaginous than mammals', can still be shattered with the forces involved and can lead to severe incapacitation or even death. Even so, the long night rages on until each Collidurag is the only animal within their line of sight. There they remain until sunrise, where they put on a dazzling display of bioluminescence and song. After an hour or so into daylight, this performance ends as they all crawl back into the ocean to await another generation, leaving only corpses and questions.

Rendered in Photoshop