I always just use "Male and Female" avoiding using the inaccurate "gender" and being more specific than saying there's 2 sexes

I meant more in terms of this topic being named for Week 26

y'all mind if I do an adaptive radiation off of atholat next gen?





also, the topic title probably needs to be changed. Or the topic needs to be split.

some other, less finished scraps from my scrapped species folder, why not?




Two different passes on the "arboreal quail". Decided it wasn't very plausible at this stage (and quadrupedal saucebacks, if I ever make them, will probably never look like this). Concept later became the ferry quail.



"Chicken-looking kakonat" intended for the driftwood islands. Decided it was too ugly.



Early version of the dockshrog.



Tejdaw evo called a fraydaw. When Hydro submitted the mothhead I decided it would be in bad taste to try submitting it, because it would result in the mothhead's immediate extinction due to its vastly superior senses.



A descendant of the gryphler. Some of its characteristics were later integrated into the mouse gryphler.



Early version of the twigfisher shrog.



Early version of little manjack. I was originally very focused on just the "biped" thing with barely any idea for its ecology, which is why the species was in development hell for so long.



Some kind of weird derived swarmer built more for looks and combinimal stuff than being an actual creature. I think it was supposed to resemble a roufo from Beta.



Early version of sausophrey.



Sexually dimorphic wolvershrog evo intended for Ramul. The list of reasons I scrapped this has no right to be as large as it is. I may reuse some of the concept for the Soma archipelago replacement for wolvershrog, though.



Another scrapped shrog intended for Ramul, this one a hybrid of multiple species. Mnidjm said no.



Scrapped hybrid of seashrog and burrowing tamjack. The sudden resurrection of several tamjack species against my strong objections basically killed it, along with several other concepts I had.



Arctic fox-like maineiac rivershrog evo. The concept will be redone as a kitshrox eventually.



What in goddamn??



Thornkruggs were just a ripoff of metters from OurFoodChain. I have no idea why I ever thought that was a good idea.



Another ferry quail prototype.



Gryphler-derived waterfowl. May revisit with better, more canon-compliant anatomy.



I do not remember drawing this ketter. I think the smelling eyes get more efficient.



A sormlicker descendant with a full 360 degree whisker sense.



Some kind of weird derived grubby loafshell?



According to the work file name, this is an argusraptor that goes fishing, probably inspired by piscivorous wolves. May rework into a real submission.



Centaur-looking thing. Drawn before the spondylozoan hip thing came to light. Could probably be reworked into a real submission.

I suppose scrapped organisms technically go here. I sketch things that never get finished all the time, far too many to post, but I have a few with completed / mostly completed art too.

These ones are early versions of concepts that became submissions with different artwork later:



Fourmaw saucebacks were originally conceptualized as neotenous derivatives of the megatusk lineage. The main difference being only one terminating fang per jaw, matching juveniles of the lineage. Scrapped because I decided it wasn't very plausible, then reimagined the concept as a shrewback instead.



Originally, argusraptors were gonna just be the Terrible Argusraptor on its own rather than a species complex. I was never really satisfied with this art and I was later inspired by wolves and coyotes to broaden the scope of the submission.



Big-headed camoback wasn't exactly submitted later, but it's the same concept as the lunging camoback--slower ambush hunter more suited to its environment. Originally lost interest because it was too terran and I'd messed up the mouth anatomy and didn't want to fix it, interest regained when I realized I could give it stupidly long grasshopper hindquarters.

This one was cannibalized for a later species concept:



This is the athol. Its name was re-used as part of atholat later, but apart from the namesake lack of a dome the two species couldn't be any more different. This was meant to be a star-tongued gulper-esque insectivore native to Darwin, but I lost interest somewhere along the way. It could probably still work, but I don't feel like making it.

These ones don't really have anything like them existing at present:



The baresnout shrew was a descendant of the opportunity shrew, and one of my earliest species concepts as one can tell by the older art style. It was meant to be an aggressive scavenger of some sort, but it was designed with looks in mind over functionality. It could probably be reworked as a descendant of the stink shrew, but if I did that I'd probably completely redesign it and make new art.



Woah, a scrapped shrog! The fermi dwarfshrog was meant to be native to Fermi when it was still just a tiny unforgiving desert island. It's small and neotenous, and I had this idea that it could use a tiny descendant of bangsticks called "pistolsticks" as a sort of one-time use pistol. It actually has a fairly complete description, but I ended up losing interest in the pistolsticks (which was never drawn). Then I put off finishing or reworking it for so long that now Fermi's completely changed and it doesn't make sense anymore, lol.

(I had had an additional idea for a descendant of it that pretended to be a baby dockshrog for free food!)



Mittenlip was a stowaway harmbless descendant that became a full-time specialist of seafaring shrew food stores. Not really much to say about it, might still work but I don't feel like writing a new description.



Softback was a descendant of the glacial sauceback that was meant to be an aesthetical hollow echo of waxfaces. The teeth don't make any sense. It no longer serves any purpose.



Cephaler was meant to be a short-necked shrew that got even anatomically stupider. It has no neck, and the head and the shoulder girdle are one. Current stance: No.



Unnamed kehaida descendant. Decided it was too ugly.



Pop shrew, a weird bubbleskin that converged on more primitive shrews. Evolved too fast and rendered obsolete by the surprise return of soriparasites (which can do this more easily and more interestingly).

The line to crown-group saucebacks doesn't have a history of using suction in any way and they can't choke like we can, so I have a difficult time imagining them ever having the pressure to evolve to force something down their throat quickly regardless of gravity.

This isn't a keystone group. This is a species entry.

Wait, how do they swallow food with their heads dangling like that? They don't have mammalian swallowing muscles, so they have to depend on gravity like everything that isn't a mammal?

The need is because some species like the mangrovecrystal can create significant barriers when left unchecked, as they bud and primarily use colony fragmentation for dispersal. The "need" for a species should not affect whether it *should* exist though.

There was a miscommunication and Cheatsy uploaded it instead of submitting it by mistake.

Birds also have air in their heads.

You'll see it when I submit it. It's specifically a sort of "quail", if you're curious.

I'm actually working on a sauceback for next gen that does some interesting tongue-based vocalization.

There's plants and animals in real life with weirder names.

What about all the edits that came from discussion with everyone else on the Discord server?

I don't think "influenced by suggestions" is enough to make someone a co-creator. The concept behind the species is entirely yours.

The support isn't formatted correctly.

Is there a cohesive list of Coolsteph's contributions that make her more of a co-creator than any other reviewer?

Why is Coolsteph listed as a second creator

The new art makes it look extremely organized, which might be too large a jump. Is that a cross section or an external view?

Temperate, subtropical, and montane? That's only 3.

Uktanks I believe were designed to actually have active respiration? @MNIDJM

Though only shailnitors have proper lungs going on.

The mouth is on the other side though? You really can't just do whatever willy nilly to the anatomy like this. That is analogous to adding a deep reproductive pit to the belly of a plent and then making it eat with it.

Personal aesthetic is not a valid reason to vastly change anatomy. Species should, in general, work with what they have unless they actually have an evolutionary reason not to (which they generally won't).

A more realistic evolution for this would be for the reproductive organs to move first for different reasons, then evolve flower mimicry using their convenient placement later. Except it would sorta actually become a flower at that point? You get what I mean.

Also, having a hole there interferes with the digestive organs.

They're approved because it's not against the rules to have an artifact in the artwork.

I think the support for this group would be Cell Wall (Cellulose)? Othe rthan that, I say this is good to go now.