Muuh

The Muuh are an ancient, sapient species of naturally-evolved crustaceans in the Orion's Arm science fiction universe. They were first found on the Titan-like moon of Muuhome, which was an ancient colony world.

Etymology
The word Muuh (plural: Muuh) might or might not have a meaning in a human language. In-universe, the Muuh were named by an impatient Cygexpa communications officer.

Anatomy and physiology
The body is symmetrical when divided into sagital and transversal planes. As such, a Muuh possesses two identical shells enclosing the brain and internal organs. There is a rim between them which harbors the sensory organs for echolocation and thermoreception.

A Muuh is a quadrupedal hexapod. Each of the frontal pair of limbs ends with a pinzer, while the remaining four used for locomotion end with tarsus-like structures.

All the body area is covered with an icy, hard exoskeleton that constantly grows. The upper and lower parts of the body have carvings, which are an indicative of an individual's health and attractiveness to other Muuh.

Being simultaneous hermaphrodites, sexual intercourse impregnates both partners. The Muuh form lifelong pairs as a rule.

Environmental requirements
Biochemically, the Muuh are carbon-based organisms that use a liquid methane-ethane mixture as solvent, along with other hydrocarbons such as tholins. They live in environments that highly resemble those found on Titan, the largest natural satellite orbiting Saturn.

Muuh metabolism is very slow, due to their reducing and cold biosphere.

Evolution
The Muuh evolved from a group of rapid mid-sized predatorial omnivores, occupying an ecological niche similar to that of raccoons on their original homeworld.

Senses
A Muuh visualizes its surrounding world by using echolocation and thermoreception. Sight is very underdeveloped due to the dim environments the Muuh have evolved on, though it is sophisticated enough to allow low-resolution, monochromatic imagery.

Psychology
Relying primarily on echolocation instead of sight, the Muuh psyche is somewhat closer to a To'ul'h than a human. Still, in terms of scientific aptitude, pragmatism and expansionistic tendencies, To'ul'hs and humans share much more between them. Their slow metabolism also slows down their thinking speeds.

The Muuh are regarded as romantics, which means that they emphatize on emotion, individuality and inspiration. A great deal of their intellectual activities are devoted to art, creating virtual realities, role-playing games and fiction. Displaying an overall disinterest in real life, the Muuh appeal to fiction to the point of warping historical events, disregarding accuracy in favor of drama in the so-called historifics.

Unfortunately, disinterest in real life has hampened scientific discoveries, ultimately slowing down technological progress. It is also implied that the Muuh are not keen at formulating or planning, since 99% of their ideas do not work out.

History
Muuh history is way longer than To'ul'h or human history, though much more vague and inaccurate due to their tendency blurring even historical records
 * c. 180,000,000 BCE - The Muuh begin to evolve primitive sapience.
 * c. 120,000,000 BCE - Development of interstellar transport. Beginning of a slow expansion through the Milky Way.
 * c. 50,000,000 BCE - Revival of interstellar transport.
 * c. 32,000,000 BCE - The Muuh modify the Soft Ones into sapience.
 * c. 28,000,000 BCE - The Soft Ones develop many technologies.
 * c. 25,000,000 BCE - Unnamed species HIE300CZE modified by the Muuh into sapience.