Deepwing Egg Clump

An egg cluster laid by the deepwing brooder, *Titanotagmatapterya amalthea*. Unfertilized eggs swimming in a bath of nutritious fatty acids and organoleads. These clusters are an excellent meal for organisms that can tolerate heavy metals.

The brooder's fat-rich diet produces a surplus of oils. The most nutritious oil is loaded into the yolk sac of egg clusters and filled with all the proteins and lead that brooder larvae need.

The remainder forms decoy bubbles filled with saline. The clean serum in these decoys is an ideal breeding and feeding ground for microfauna, who race to enter the bubble and pillage the safe interior before the competition arrives.

Deepwing brooders are a major contributor to the 'marine snow' that makes life in the deeper ocean possible. It is conceivable (though not certain) that the Axum may have bred or engineered the brooders to increase their egg yield.

Assessment: ideal food source.