Sea Wyvern

The Sea Wyvern is a reptilian draconid creature that inhabits the coasts of the seas in Lyssaria.

Biology

The body of a sea wyvern looks similar to their terrestrial cousin, but much smaller, being around the size of a vulture, with a wingspan of 2.5 meters and a length of 2 meters from head to tail. The sea wyvern possess a reduced spike at the end of their tail like the land wyvern, but it has lost its ability to apply poison with it, instead the sea wyvern has evolved to use their sharp and pointy tongue in a way that it can "shoot" it like a chameleon would, thus impaling or poisoning their prey to make an easier catch. Their tail isn't useless though, now it has adapted to be flat an function like the tail of a crocodile, making the wyverns faster while in the water.

Life

Sea wyverns live in colonies that built their nests and hunt in coastal areas, having a preference for cliffs and other steep formations. When a male wants to attract potential females for mating, they will start to build a nest similar to a bird, but, akin to their distant dragon cousins, they will try to obtain shiny metals and gemstones to show status. This is the reason sea wyverns have created a habit to attack boats and travellers near the coast in the hopes to find shiny coins for their nests.
When hunting for food the wyverns will dive in the water, launching themselves from the air to catch fish like some coastal birds do, but in addition to this they'll use their retractile tongue to secure their prey.
Sea wyverns are in the middle of the food chain, hunting fish and small coastal vertebrates with really good results, but also being hunted by bigger predators like sharks, giant eagles and some human tribes.

In Culture

Most of the people see sea wyverns as a plague that puts in danger ships and coastal settlements, but they aren't too difficult to deal with unless on big numbers.
Many pirate crews use the sea wyvern as symbol given that they can identify with the beasts: "A great hunter always looking for coin". This has led to the use of 'sea wyvern' as an insult in some coastal cultures.
Even with their savage behaviour some people have managed to tame sea wyverns and have them as companions or pets. Some pirates say the sea wyvern can smell gold from a long distance, so some crews decide to have at least one in the ship to increase their chances of finding another ship to prey at sea.