Anatomically correct Isitoq

This is the latest in a long series of questions I've asked on my fantasy world which contains many mythical and folkloric creatures. I won't link the other questions since at this stage the series has become huge.

The Isitoq is a creature from Inuit mythology. This book describes it like so:

The Isitoq . . . is covered in coarse hair. Its eyes are divided by a large mouth containing one tooth flanked on either side by a short one.

A Book of Creatures illustrates the Isitoq like this:

What could this creature plausibly be, in terms of ancestry and relation to real animals? A few criteria;

• Rely on the written account more than the picture, which is vulnerable to extra stuff added on by the artist
• I'd prefer if it didn't have a really early POD (e.g. it's a surviving dinosaur), because that would cause many other changes due to the Butterfly Effect
• It has to be something which could realistically exist in the Arctic, from a biogeographical standpoint. As a random example, penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere and have always lived there, so no penguins please.

If you can find other reliable accounts of the Isitoq's appearance as told in traditional folklore, you can use them as well.

posted over 5 years ago

SealBoi‭

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