These are a bit hard to post but the markings on the mantle were so pronounced that I am hoping someone has an idea what they might be. One photo is after she expired and the other while she was still alive. The markings I am trying to identify are the brown lines at the end of the mantle. The pictures Sedna took also show the odd lines.
It's really hard to see. Did she have the markings when she arrived? It is possible that it is healed tissue. Maybe she rubbed the end of her mantle on something and it healed, leaving scar tissue.
The markings were there in the shipping photos above. It is so evenly (not clear in the photos) distributed (centered on the mantle) that I don't think it is from injury. My first thought was parasite, or stretch marks (but I never saw any on the mercs post hatch females). In the preship photos you can see that the area around the markings does not color (she never colored red here except in a few flashes).
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