I've edited it to be a bit larger.

Its jaws are close to / touching the ground while it grazes, so it can physically feel footsteps. I'll edit stuff soon.

edited

Snow Corvisnapper (Corvidrakon lagopus)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Corvisnapper
Habitat: Maineiac Polar Scrub, Maineiac Tundra, Maineiac Polar Beach
Size: 80 cm long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Omnivore (Minikruggs, Silkruggs, Vermees, Teacup Saucebacks, Sapworms, Dartirs, Xenobees, Mountain Pedesorm, Shieldworm, Helmethead Uksip, Uksor, Iron Siever, Gushlych, Scaled Diveskunik, Karybdos, Gliding Gushstrider, Gushitos, Hidestrider, Snowy Florasnapper eggs, Corvisnapper eggs, Tipsnapper eggs, fruit of Cryobowls, Blastree seeds, Beach Piloroot fruit, Pilonoroot fruit, Fuzzkern seeds, Pilonomroot seeds), Kleptoparasite, Scavenger
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Downy Feathers)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Hard-Shelled Eggs)

The Snow Corvisnapper replaced its ancestor in its range. It lives in the polar regions of Maineiac. To adapt for the cold environment, it has fully-feathered legs and wing membranes. It is an opportunist and consumes various small fauna, fruit, eggs, and seeds. It is able to eat iron fauna, and what iron it doesn’t use for its blood and tissues is removed via its feces. It has been known to harass predators to steal kills and board beached wolvershrog nests to feast on their food stores. It varies somewhat in color pattern, but it is usually white with dark speckles, which makes it resemble a pile of snow dotted with either debris or ash from the nearby volcano.

The snow corvisnapper's mouth suits its lifestyle better than its ancestor's. Instead of its (note, unbeaked) jaws being shaped like a beak for some reason, it has a long snout typical of an opportunist. It retains heterodont dentition, but instead of a mix of pointed and peg-like teeth, it has dromaeosaur-like serrated teeth towards the front and troodontid-like teeth towards the back, allowing it to chew flora and caparaces alike and tear into meat with ease. It is somewhat social and may forage in small groups.

Like its ancestor, the snow corvisnapper nests in groups among rocks. Though it is not a mountain species, the rise in sea levels over the past few dozen million years reduced all landmasses to just their mountains, so even terrain near sea level is rough. Unlike its ancestor, both parents care for the eggs and take turns incubating them. Nesting occurs during the short polar summer. Juveniles gain full plumage and flight ability very quickly, but take nearly 2 years to reach full size. They can live up to around 15 years.

The snow corvisnapper has, through accidental consumption of eggs inside cryobowls which then survived the trip through its digestive system and landed in pools of snowmelt, spread the scaled diveskunik to Maineiac Tundra and Maineiac Polar Scrub.

--

Size note: It's actually similar in size to its ancestor. I took a guess at the intended length based on the animal it was modeled after. We should really stop using wingspan, it's awful for size charts, dioramas, and basically all other bonus content.

Snowy Florasnapper (Patiodrakon lagopus)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Fruitsnapper
Habitat: Maineiac Tundra, Maineiac Polar Scrub, Maineiac Polar Beach
Size: 1.5 meters long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Herbivore (Glaalgae, Cryobowls bowl and fruit, Mainestalk, Sunstalks, Pilunoroot fruit and leaves, Pilokepderi, Beach Piloroot fruit and leaves, Talfuzz, Pilonoroot, Retigroenx, Fuzzkern, Pilonomroot)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Downy Feathers)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Hard-Shelled Eggs)

The snowy florasnapper split from its ancestor and moved into Maineiac’s polar biomes. It feeds on various polar flora and their fruit, which it grazes during the summer and digs out of the snow to eat during the long winter. It isn’t as great at flying as its ancestor, but can still take off to avoid predators. To adapt to the cold climate, its tail is shortened and bottlebrush-like, lacking the stabilizer which was prone to heat loss; it is proportionally larger; it can tuck its wing membranes under large “blankets” of plumage on its arms; and its legs are fully feathered. Much of its underlying anatomy is obscured by what some might describe as “sheer floof”. It is immune to the spicy taste of some of the flora it consumes.

The snowy florasnapper’s beak is far less extensive, making room for its cheeks, which keep food from falling out of its mouth as it chews with its teeth. A large gut allows it to digest the leaves it consumes, though it is not as efficient as a ruminant. Its jaw bones are sensitive to vibrations, allowing it to feel potential danger in the form of footsteps while grazing. Its coloration causes it to resemble a pile of snow while at rest.

The snowy florasnapper, being an egg-layer unable to evolve ovovivipary due to its hard eggshell, must breed in the short summer. Trees are absent in much of its range, so it nests on the ground, often communally and well-hidden among any available shrubs. Both parents watch over the eggs and hatchlings, taking turns incubating, and brutally attack anything that comes near that even resembles a predator. The chicks hatch fully feathered, extremely fluffy, and already able to run, and they follow their parents for the first year of their lives. Only half of all juveniles survive their first winter due to starvation and freezing. Snowy florasnappers reach maturity in only one year and can live up to nine.

The snowy florasnapper has spread the fuzzkern, the pilunoroot, the pilonomroot, and the pilonoroot to Maineiac Tundra through fruit and seeds. Some of the flora it spread depend on water; they survive in the tundra because, just like a real life tundra, it effectively becomes a wetland every summer due to snowmelt and a lack of evaporation.

I'm submitting revisions to the seashrog to add a few important details that I apparently accidentally deleted when I was reorganizing the description, to add more detail to vocalization / communication in general, and to fix some lingering errors I forgot to fix when I was revising its social behavior previously. I'm also adding in a detail about why it evolved, which also gives a bit more context to it replacing its ancestor.

QUOTE

The '''Seashrog''' replaced [[Tamjack|its ancestor]]. While the Tamjack had evolved in a vast archipelago where landfall was frequent and seaside flora was plentiful, rising sea levels and shifting tectonic plates had replaced the island chain with a vast stretch of open ocean, where being an obligate herbivore was nonviable. As a result, the Seashrog became more intelligent in order to survive on the open sea and developed omnivory and tool use. Originating as an accidental discovery, the Seashrog learned to craft spears by cutting sticks at an angle. Initially, these were used for self-defense against its predator, the [[Pirate Waxface]], but before long the Seashrog started using them for something new--spearfishing. It was able to develop the dexterity to accomplish this as an inevitable conclusion of its existing advanced nest-building skills. ==Anatomy== The Seashrog retains the general otter-shaped build of its ancestor, though with significantly stronger and more dexterous forelimbs. It has opposable thumbs which can lie flat with the other digits when used for walking or reversed to grasp spears or nest-building materials. Its hand anatomy resembles that of a Terran primate at a glance, but it lacks the ability to properly support its weight while gripping, as the ability to grasp was developed independently of any arboreal lifestyle. It can walk and run either quadrupedally or, if it is holding a spear, tripedally with the weapon clutched in its dominant hand. It no longer has spikes on its underside, as they offered limited advantage and made mating more difficult. Though dexterous, the Seashrog does not have the fine motor skill to use small tools. To hunt, all it needs is the ability to hold onto a really long stick and thrust it really hard; when presented with finer tools, such as a dagger, the Seashrog would not know what to do with it, and even if it did it would be rather clumsy with it. It's simply designed to work with spears and nothing else. The Seashrog has developed the ability to close its pouch, allowing females with pouch young to leave the nest and swim without drowning them. The male also now has a pouch, which protects his external reproductive organs and streamlines that general part of his body. The pouch is not held closed while out of water, as being watertight also makes it airtight--keeping it closed will cause pouch young to suffocate. The Seashrog's spikes and tail axe now have dense bone cores. Though this makes it a slower swimmer, its fluffy fur coat holds in air well enough that it doesn't sink. This change not only makes its tail axe more effective for cutting down trees, as it has more weight to it and retains its strength even while soaked, but also allows the Seashrog to use its tail axe as a heavy counterbalance while struggling with especially large prey. It swims less than its ancestor did, partly because it's more difficult and partly because it simply doesn't always need to. ==Behavior== The Seashrog lives alone or in mated pairs with joeys. It is generally non-aggressive, at least to creatures that do not resemble its predators. It defends itself against predators using spears, which function as a spacing weapon to prevent them from approaching too closely, much like the antlers of a Terran deer. The Seashrog has been known to consume flora that cause hallucinations, such as the [[Stalk Rastum]], for recreational purposes, not unlike a Terran dolphin. ===Vocalization and Body Language=== Seashrogs are vocal creatures and have a variety of calls. A short bark serves to grab another Seashrog's attention and is usually followed by another sound. Such sounds include "akakak" ("this is mine/not yours", often used when defending food or a play thing from another shrog), "eeboor" ("come here"), "euhree" ("stop/don't"), "areeereeeeer" (an alarm call or scream, "I'm in danger/look out"), and "burbur" ("hello"). (Note that the letter B as used here is only an approximation rather than indicating exact pronunciation, and it only comes out of a shrog's mouth as a very soft "pop" sound.) The attention bark can be modified with inflections to form names to call to a specific individual, generally used by parents to call out to specific joeys. Seashrogs also have various emotion-related vocalizations which do not usually follow a bark. These include a threatening creaky growl, frustrated grumbling, nervous huffing, excited or playful chattering, a content sigh, terrified squealing, and a long whine indicating pain. Seashrogs also make use of body language and, to some extent, facial expressions. Most of their body language is intuitive, such as making one's self small and unthreatening when scared, tensing up when stressed, and relaxing when content. Facial expressions, which are mainly focused around movement of the ears and eyelids, are similarly simple and intuitive and based on tension and size illusion as to communicate effectively including with other species. A relaxed open-mouth expression with ears pointed outwards is roughly analogous to a smile. Similar to many non-human animals on Earth, a toothy grin is a threat. The Seashrog's mating call is a long "brbrbrbrbrbrbree", usually repeated three or four times. For a Seashrog without a mate, it essentially means "I'm looking for a mate", while if it already has a mate it means "I want to mate". Living out at sea with no vegetation to hide in, Seashrogs don't have to worry about predators hearing them which would not have already seen them anyway, so they are fairly vocal while mating, making noises similar to those of squeaky toys. ===Diet and Spear Usage=== The Seashrog is an omnivore, unlike its ancestor, as living out at sea as an obligate herbivore was ultimately unsustainable. As it also cannot survive on meat alone, it stores edible flora it gathered at the shore or found out at sea inside its nest for later consumption. The Seashrog makes use of wooden spears, typically made from obsidian wood. These were discovered by accident during nest construction sometime during the Seashrog's early evolution, and they are crafted by striking straight pieces of wood at an angle with its tail. The original purpose of the spear was self-defense, as it made a better spacing weapon than the tail-axe, but it was eventually exapted for hunting when the Seashrog developed its omnivory. To hunt for meat, the Seashrog stands at the edge of its nest and watches for aquatic fauna to pass underneath. When it sees something edible, it thrusts its spear into the water, impaling it. Using its heavy axe-tail to keep its balance, it then pulls the catch out of the water and onto the deck. If the initial strike did not kill its catch, it will either wait for it to suffocate or dispatch it with a bite to the head or neck. It will then call to summon its mate and joeys if it has them, and once all Seashrogs present have eaten their fill, the leftovers are dried out in the sun and stored inside the nest. The Seashrog will also use its spear to snag oceanic flora and bring it aboard, through a similar motion to stabbing prey. This allows it to gather food without ever leaving its nest, though it may still do so if it's low on supplies and sees food which is too far away. Similarly to how it treats leftover meat, it will dry out the flora it collects in the sun before storing it away. ===Nest=== The Seashrog, like its ancestor, constructs floating boat-like nests using flora it cuts down with its tail. The Seashrog's nests, however, differ from its ancestor's to better facilitate spearfishing--rather than squashed spheres with a hole on top, they are boat-like half-spheres with a deck. The beginning of construction is relatively unchanged--the Seashrog chops down trees such as the [[Mainland Fuzzpalm]] and [[Obsidibend]] which have flexible trunks and bends them to form ribs for the nest. However, instead of bending them into half-circles, the Seashrog only bends them part way so that when they are joined on one end they don't meet on the other. Once the ribs have dried, the Seashrog then lays a few long straight logs or strips of wood on top in one direction to form support, then lays down more perpendicularly to them to create the deck. The deck has a hole in the center, which serves as the entrance to the nest. The entrance is covered by a simple lid constructed of sticks. If at this stage some part of the deck is too weak, additional pieces of wood may be brought inside to serve as vertical support beams. The preferred wood for the deck and support beams are generally that of denser material, such as Cocobarrage wood. All parts of the nest are sealed together using saliva and Mainland Fuzzpalm berries. While its ancestor coated the exterior in various flora, the Seashrog coats the interior as well to serve as padding during rough storms. [[Mainland Fuzzpalm]] leaves are preferred for their insulating properties. The deck has no flora covering it to reduce exposure to potentially harmful microbes, with the exception of the part surrounding the entrance to help keep the lid in place during storms. The radial bowl shape of the nest is completely instinctive, as it has its roots in more ancient shrews which had less capacity for culture yet also needed to build nests that float at sea. The instinct to build the nest in a particular shape is so strong that it can be difficult, if not outright impossible, to teach a Seashrog to build one differently. This is because deviation could result in the destruction of the nest while out at sea, which would be guaranteed to drown all of its inhabitants if there is no land nearby to escape to. The Seashrog has advanced its ancestor's habit of storing Fuzzpalm berries into general food and supply storage. A section of the nest interior is dedicated to stockpiling food, nest maintenance supplies, and spears. Nest maintenance supplies consist of Mainland Fuzzpalm berries, driftwood, leaves, and leftover pieces of wood from the nest's original construction. Parts of spears can also be used to repair damage to the nest in a pinch, though this is not preferred as the Seashrog won't be able to construct more spears until the next time its nest washes ashore. The storage section is not separated off from the rest of the interior, but it is usually placed where existing support beams will prevent contents from being flung all over the nest in a storm. ===Reproduction=== The Seashrog has many osteoderms on its face, hence its epithet ''dracops'' (meaning "dragon-face"). Though the ones on its back are useful for defense, the ones on its face instead serve mainly for mate selection--a neat arrangement of well-formed face osteoderms indicates good health. Mate selection usually occurs on the beach, though potential mates can also be met out at sea. Males will compete for a particular female, typically engaging in ritual combat where they "head wrestle": they press their heads together and their facial osteoderms interlock, and they try to throw one another to the ground. Notably, they actually consider their ritual combat to be fun--mated pairs may do it playfully while bored. The female will usually pick the winner of the ritual combat unless he is visibly unhealthy. To avoid their spikes, they mate belly-to-belly like many Terran spiny animals. If either one already has a nest they will move into it, usually the one which is in better condition if they both already have nests, transferring supplies stored in the other. If neither already has a nest, such as with young shrogs who have only recently left their parents' nest, they will build one together. Though Seashrog joeys have a fairly high chance of surviving to adulthood, their massive range and lifestyle means significantly fewer will ever find a mate, and as such they lack a breeding season and mate often--the female is almost always either pregnant or nursing and can have dozens of joeys in her lifetime. Like most Shrews, the Seashrog has a pouch and gives live birth to helpless joeys, though with their relatively long gestation period of 4 months the joeys are more comparable to the pinkies of a Terran mouse than to newborn joeys of Terran marsupials. Their shorter gestation period compared to their ancestor serves to accommodate a higher birth rate, which combined with their inherited litter size of 2-4 joeys increases the chances that any of their offspring will find a mate themselves. The newborns stay in their mother's pouch feeding on milk until their sharp osteoderms begin to grow, at which point they leave the pouch and are weaned. The joeys grow fairly slowly compared to their ancestor, due in part to the amount of time it takes to develop their brain, taking as long as 6 years to reach full size. However, they usually leave the nest around the age of 3, at which point they will be capable of independence and their parents will have younger offspring large enough to assist in nest maintenance. If their parents do not have more offspring by that point, they may stay around until they do or when their parents grow tired of them freeloading and chase them off next landfall. The adults are not generally aggressive towards their adult offspring unless they outright refuse to leave. When they first leave their parents' nest, young Seashrogs will live along the beach for a year or until they find a mate, feeding on beach- and coast-dwelling flora and fauna. If they do not find a mate in the first year, they will eventually construct a nest and go out alone, periodically trying again to find a mate whenever they make landfall. Seashrogs usually live up to 30 years, though an especially healthy and lucky individual can push 40. Homosexuality has been observed in Seashrogs. Male-male pairs are more common in older individuals whose previous mates have died. Female-female pairs are different, and also serve as a reproductive outlet for solitary males. When out at sea, female-female pairs will intentionally keep watch for nests belonging to solitary males and male-male pairs. They will tempt the males to swim over to their nest to mate with them by letting out mating calls and imitating the vocalizations they make while mating. After mating, the males return to their own nest and the female-female pair raise any resulting joeys together. ==Intelligence== The Seashrog is intelligent and self-aware, as well as possibly the smartest shrew since the extinct [[Lemupus]]. It passes the mirror test and can be taught to understand basic language on a similar level to a Terran dog, though it cannot learn to speak. It can be compared to a Terran Chimpanzee in "advancement", but there is one very important distinction--as it does not live in large groups, the Seashrog is severely lacking in social intelligence. Though mated pairs will bond and stay together and can even work together to defend themselves or catch especially difficult prey, any large group of Seashrogs is unsustainable--without any hierarchy instinct, organization is impossible and they will eventually fall into conflict and break apart. They also lack any kind of language beyond instinctive grunts and barks, so they are incapable of communicating ideas. Though smart enough to build a boat and hunt with spears, and capable of learning these skills culturally, they cannot even begin to form a collective imagination. As such, though one could make an argument that they are "sapient" the way a Terran ape or crow is, they are not sophont like a human nor like their extinct distant relative the [[Nomad]]. That said, the Seashrog is not to be underestimated. While not dexterous enough to use fine tools, it is easily capable of improvising weapons to defend itself or its offspring. While the general construction of the boat-nest is powered by instinct and experience in their parents' nest, individual Seashrogs may use their experience to make personal modifications to theirs, such as sliding spears between the ribs to serve as defense against large predators. Improvements and modifications to their construction techniques don't pass between families, but they can be passed on to their offspring, allowing some variation to occur with time. ==Relationships with Other Species== [[File:flumpus flumps on shrog nest.png|thumb|Usually, creatures that choose to bask on a Seashrog's nest are very small. This [[Flumpus]] is a notable exception.]]The Seashrog is in a mutualistic relationship with the [[Cleaner Borvermid]], which keeps its nest clean of harmful vermees and epiphytic flora. As such, the Cleaner Borvermid has spread throughout the Seashrog's entire range. It has also spread the parasitic [[False Cleaner Borvermid]] and [[Stowaway Harmbless]]. Though the Seashrog is not technically in a relationship with the [[Hockel]], Hockels would sometimes climb onto the Seashrog's nest to bask. This has resulted in accidental transport, leading to the Hockel spreading to Wind Temperate Beach. The Hockel survived there as a result of the Seashrog also transporting the Gumjorn. Though most of the species spread by the Seashrog were either food or a nuisance, its expanded range has also had the effect of expanding the range of another species, the [[Pirate Waxface]], which is the Seashrog's predator. As a result, the Pirate Waxface is now present in all habitats which the Seashrog is also present in. ===Flora and Extinctions=== The Seashrog's use of other types of wood has caused various flora to spread, either through intentional transport or through spores getting caught in its fur and nest material. In particular, [[Cocobarrage]], [[Obsidibend]], and [[Mainland Fuzzpalm]] have spread to all beaches throughout its entire range. Though it initially used both the [[Fuzzpalm]] and the Mainland Fuzzpalm for wood and adhesive, when the Mainland Fuzzpalm spread it out-competed the original Fuzzpalms present in its range. As a result, the original Fuzzpalm is now extinct. The same has occurred with all remaining beach populations of the [[Obsiditree]], as a result of it spreading the Obsidibend. The Seashrog has also spread many fruit-bearing flora due to it transporting their fruit in its food stores. The following have spread to all coasts and beaches in which they can survive within its range: [[Carnosprawl]], [[Mangot]], [[Qupe Tree]], [[Fuzzweed]], [[Gumjorn]], and [[Baebula]]. Due to its love of eating the Stalk Rastum for its hallucinogenic effects, the Seashrog has also accidentally spread this to all shallow biomes in its range through the spores inevitably getting absolutely everywhere.

Apologies for the delay. The Week 3 Diorama Contest is closed, vote here: https://forms.gle/BHuNDwjh73HRZWkm8

The artist of the winning piece will receive one free use of flyway for a non-flying species under 1 meter, the top 3 winners will be added to the week 3 overview page, and all entries will be added to the wiki page and bot entry for the specific biome depicted. Voting ends on the 27th.

The journey has been long and hard but I have finally made contact with Bonosaber and invited him back.

I somehow managed to contact both Clarke and Bonosaber on the same day. If they both respond/rejoin at the same time, things are about to get interesting.
(Edit: for reference, in terms of how they approached making and designing species, they're like, extreme opposites)

I wouldn't mind an extension. I've been having a bad week and didn't get as much done as I would've like.

It's kinda a bit late to deal with that given submissions are due tomorrow, but... MNIDJM Nergali

I've added a behavioral limitations section, but I might still tweak / add onto it (not currently satisfied but there's a thunderstorm rn and I don't want to lose progress)

I've already asked Mni and I know he's gonna review it, but if there's anyone else who has some knowledge of big brains, some input on whether this works as a non-person would be helpful.

EDIT: I might add a bit more clarification under other behavior

Edited. I won't add newer submissions to the diet because that's not done in Alpha.

Edited.

QUOTE (MNIDJM @ Jun 10 2021, 04:02 PM)

Generation 164 A isn't a requirement

Hydro made the inclusion of A or B a requirement before Alpha was even revived.

Support for this would be Endoskeleton (Bone)

Other living bandersnatches are also sexually dimorphic, with females being facultative or obligate bipeds that use tools. I think it would be better to use spectresnatch here.

Rivers have never been treated as hard-to-cross boundaries in Sagan 4 history. There will always be narrow streams, fallen logs, ice, or drought allowing stuff to cross in the timespan of only hundreds of years. The course of the river itself readily changes in a short timespan as well.

Ah, on second thought since this doesn't have heartwood, maybe lignified stem would make more sense? We need to nail down official terms.

I think you would describe it in terms of its cell wall? And this looks like it has a woody stem. Maybe something like
Cell Wall (Cellulose), Woody Stem

Oh, this might actually fit less as a landmark or diorama and more as an example of a suggestion I made for story submissions, though. (basically written dioramas - a documentary or story about creatures in their environment pretty much, documentaries being like, well, nature documentaries, and stories being more comparable to stuff like Little Moments and Stronger Together from Serina)

EDIT: Brain fried from being outside all day - 50 edits later I think I've nailed it

Since not all slots were filled for week 22 landmarks, I wonder if retroactive landmarks could also be implemented. Though...this would be on the week 22/23 boundary.

I think if I were to have done it, it would be an insta-extinct week 23 landmark which describes the final years and eventual demise of the last tripodician, so that readers encounter it chronologically when browsing by week.

Coincidentally, I've been working on a 21/22 boundary diorama depicting the last Sagons. It's far less beautiful; they freeze to death unceremoniously on the tundra after running out of firewood.

After "size" there should be "support", which in this case would be:
Support: Endoskeleton (Jointed Wood)

I have now made every single canon Shrew in Spore, and 1 out of 2 non-canon Shrew sophont attempts. (I'm getting direct feedback from the creator of the more recent one before I share it to the online Sporepedia)

My Sagan 4 Alpha sporecast:
http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=ssc-501075980161