Brinewing

The Brinewing is a small, predatory fauna species that will appear in Subnautica: Below Zero.

Appearance
The Brinewing possesses a long, tubular mouth, tipped with spikes. Its two long, furled fins that can be fully extended to look like fans.

The Brinewing's body is small and ends with an abrupt yellow tip. It also has spikes on its back and underside. The animal's belly features a translucent and expandable bladder, capable of storing a white briny liquid.

Behavior
The Brinewing has a highly unique attack: super cooled saline solution is expelled from its mouth at high speed. This creates a snap-freezing "brinicle" which freezes prey or defends against attackers. The Brinewing uses its fin-wings to keep the saline at super critical temperatures by deploying them speed up heat loss from its body, keeping the brine cold.

The Brinewing's translucent bladder holds the saline that the Bringwing uses for its attack. It can contract its bladder at will to expel the saline through the mouth. Once expended the bladder recedes until filled with brine once more.

Design
The Brinewing bears many features reminiscent of members of the real life group of fish Sygnathiformes; The large transparent fins resemble the oversized fins of the flying gurnard, whilst the long snout and general head shape resembles the elongated snouts of Sygnathiforme fish within the subfamily Hippocampinae i.e. seahorses. The concept of the Brinewing's projectile attack hunting method may take inspiration from the real life archerfish, which are known for acquiring their prey by knocking off branches by firing a jet of water from their mouth.