QUOTE (HethrJarrod @ Sep 27 2022, 01:27 AM)

You have Types and Flavors mixed up.

no he doesn't

Oh, that reminds me. Have you seen other recent developments in the flying sauceback department? Particularly--



arboreal "quails" that use their tail spurs for stability in trees and have better eyesight




and ophreys that are getting a little better at stability and climbing

There's also a tree genus in the Wallace-Koseman area that this species could feed on the berries of.

I don't think this mechanism would really work with any ancestor. You keep saying it "makes sense" on the Discord but it really doesn't. Wheel mechanisms only evolve in microbes for many reasons, few or none of which are compensated for here.

Mudflats are the "riparian" for the wetlands, so they're under riparian.

How are the rust microbes getting iron?

How did this disconnection evolve without going through a phase of not being able to transfer nutrients between the leaves and stem before the archimedean screw evolved?

Oh my, I didn't even notice the common name. Yeah, referencing the situation with Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in this way is completely inappropriate. It needs a different name.

While it isn't technically against the rules, mni might ask you to change the description to not be formatted...however one describes that. There was actually a discussion about avoiding narrativization on the staff channel earlier today.

I don't like the genus name.

The mangals are apparently mangrove reefs, not normal mangrove forests.

It is only in submerged habitats, so yes.

I've edited a clarification.

Hydra Anemoweed (Habilihydrus confundens) (confusing adaptable-hydra)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Gut Anemoweeds
Habitat: Dass Temperate Coast, Ninth Subtropical Coast, Blood Subtropical Mangal, Blood Bayou, Jlindy Tropical Coast, Jlindy Tropical Mangal, Bardic Swamp, Koopa Subtropical Coast, Koopa Subtropical Mangal, Kenotai Bayou, Javen Tropical Coast, Javen Tropical Mangal, Wright Bayou, Pipcard Bayou, Terra Swamp, Ichthy Swamp, Clarke Subtropical Coast, Jeluki Subtropical Mangal, Jeluki Bayou, King Temperate Coast, Always Marsh, Always Temperate Mangal, Dorite Subtropical Bay, Glicker Subtropical Mangal, Glicker Bayou, Ofan Tropical Coast, Ofan Tropical Mangal, Gec Swamp, Chum Subtropical Coast, Chum Subtropical Mangal, Biocat Bayou, Martyk Temperate Sea, Iituem Temperate Bay, Martyk Temperate Mangal, Elerd Temperate Coast, Elerd Temperate Mangal
Size: 30 cm wide
Support: Soft-Bodied (Hydrostatic Skeleton)
Diet: Omnivore (Twinkorals, Grabbyswarmers, Miniwhorls, Eusuckers, Brushrums, Chainswarmers, Minifee, Miniswarmers, Flashkelps, Scuttlers, Frabukis, Nectascooter, Snatcherswarmer, Hitchhiker Scuttler, Sucker Swarmer, Left-Right Scalucker, Imprisoned Wolley, Gillarill, Urmelia, Clarke Cleaner Echofin, Cala Keryh, Cocoprong, Mertiprongs, juvenile Leafy Plyentwort, Globby Boneflora, Shellflora, Bonegrass, Bonecorus, young Blooblblega, Shellise, Salt Bog Bowlwhorl, young Darwin Tuffdra, young Ashkalatongrass, Common Fraboo larvae, Bog Echofin, Wooleater Echofin, Jeluki Boneflora, Eggorger Swarmer, Moonlit Dancer, Bonebriar, Canoe Krugg, Crawling Meiouk, young Salt Buffel, juvenile Floating Pumpgill, juvenile Dunki, juvenile Common Oceanscooter, juvenile Diamond Pumpgill, juvenile Follower Gilltail, Speckled Pumpgill eggs and juveniles, juvenile Raq Urpoi, juvenile Trunk Frabuki, juvenile Sruglettes, juvenile Common Gilltails, juvenile Larvaback, juvenile South Polar Shardgill, Bora Scuttler, Salmunduses, Kyanoses, Flovars, Basilliphyta, Swarmerkings, Luminus, Tlukvaequabora berries (rarely)), Scavenger, Detritivore, Photosynthesis
Respiration: Passive (Diffusion), Aided by Photosynthesis
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Spawning, Eggs)

The hydra anemoweed split from its ancestor. As its name implies, it has many mouths leading into a central stomach. This is a consequence of instinct and learning working in tandem with its unusual nervous system-based body plan regulation. As it grows, it senses its environment and will notice prey repeatedly moving right past specific parts of its body and “imagine” itself having a mouth there to catch it, changing the body form that its zooids are instructed to maintain. The logic and processing that goes into decisions like this, as in its ancestors, is handled entirely by the interconnected nervous systems of all the zooids communicating and working together, making the ability to decide to have a body part somewhere an example of emergent intelligence. What makes it unique compared to the emergent intelligence of most colonial organisms is that it affects its body form, rather than only its behavior. It is able to use some of its mouths as legs to “walk” and graze on flora and microbes while simultaneously catching prey from the water with the others.

The hydra anemoweed has developed a new category of zooid, related to holdfast zooids, called action zooids. There are two main types of these, one which threads between the external gatherer zooids and one which lines the inner surface of the body cavity. Action zooids are almost entirely muscle and serve to increase the strength and speed at which the zoon can move. These also allow it to catch quicker prey, such as swarmers and the occasional gilltail.

The hydra anemoweed’s gonad organones no longer violently burst. They have dedicated fissure planes where the connections between zooids are weaker, allowing them to break open with a spasm of their action zooids. Once the gametes have all been released, the gonads stitch back up relatively quickly. The hydra anemoweed has a varied number of gonads per individual, similar to its heads, and will grow more if it can afford to in times of abundance. Similar to its ancestor, it broadcast spawns, and an embryo will form an embryonic zoon before it hatchs, using yolk and photosynthesis for energy.

Mangrove Smasher (Sumosaurus arborvastator) (tree-destroyer sumo-lizard)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Flumpus
Habitat: Adults: Jlindy Tropical Mangal, Koopa Subtropical Mangal, Javen Tropical Mangal, Jeluki Subtropical Mangal, Always Temperate Mangal, Ofan Tropical Mangal, Chum Subtropical Mangal, Martyk Temperate Mangal, Elerd Temperate Mangal, Fermi Temperate Mangal, Artir Temperate Mangal, Soma Temperate Mangal, Coolsteph Temperate Mangal, Blood Subtropical Mangal, Glicker Subtropical Mangal, Jlindy Tropical Coast, Koopa Subtropical Coast, Javen Tropical Coast, Ofan Tropical Coast, Chum Subtropical Coast, Martyk Temperate Sea, Elerd Temperate Coast, Artir Temperate Coast, Soma Temperate Sea, Coolsteph Temperate Coast; Migrating juveniles and pocket populations: Fermi Temperate Coast, Ninth Subtropical Coast, Dass Temperate Coast, Clarke Subtropical Coast, King Temperate Coast, Dorite Subtropical Bay, Mnid Temperate Ocean, North Jujubee Temperate Ocean
Size: Male: 8 meters long; Female: 4.5 meters long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Omnivore (Mangrovecrystal, juvenile Tlukvaequabora, Twinkbora, Marblora, Larandbora, Borinvermee, Common Gilltails, Miniswarmers, Grabbyswarmers, Stowaway Harmbless, Bora Scuttler, Serpungo, Pelagic Puffgrass, Raft-Building Cone Puffgrass, Hitchiker Scuttler, Scuttlers, Parasitic Branch-Lantern, Coastal Goth Tree, Pioneer Raftballs, Colonialballs, Barnosprawl, Tambuck babies, Topship Fuzzpalm, Goldilackaruck, Shailnitor, Frabukis, Swarmerscooter, Digging Filterpeders, Chopsticks Fatcoat, Clearner Borvermid, False Cleaner Borvermid, Bulky Hammerhead, Bonegrove, Harp-Hum)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Gigantotherm
Reproduction: Sexual, Two Genders, Oviviparous

The mangrove smasher split from its ancestor. It originated from flumpuses that moved north and encountered vast reef-like mangals along Jlindi tropical coast, but gradually hopped to more coastlines through juvenile migration and by using pockets of mangrove habitat on non-mangal coastlines. As its name implies, it smashes mangrove flora in order to eat them, as well as the fauna which flee from their destroyed hiding place. This breaks up the mangal biomes across its entire range, ensuring direct access between the coast and the shore. This supports the lifestyles of a myriad of semi-aquatic organisms that otherwise have trouble crossing dense mangals, such as shrogs, snoas, fatcoats, and more, as well as various floating and raft-building flora, on mangrove-supporting coastlines.

Due to its large size, even female mangrove smashers find difficulty supporting themselves on land. Instead, they walk on the ocean floor and periodically paddle up to breathe. They feed from deep-water mangrove flora further from shore at low tide and enter the mangals proper at high tide. In order to smash a mangrove tree, a mangrove smasher, usually a male, will target the roots with its robust forelimbs, destabilizing the plant until it topples over. This not only causes the leaves to fall into the water where other mangrove smashers can feast, but it also disturbs fauna such as gilltails and swarmers which use the mangrove roots as shelter, which the mangrove smashers snap up and eat. They will also feed on the leaves of younger mangrove trees. Being omnivorous makes their diet sustainable, as they can feed on mangroves slowly enough that they are capable of recovering later.

Juvenile mangrove smashers are better swimmers than adults. When they reach about two meters in length, they will swim away and disperse hundreds or even thousands of miles over the ocean and non-mangrove-supporting coastal waters, resting on shrog nests and rafts of floating flora along the way and using these as food sources. This behavior encourages genetic diversity and has allowed the mangrove smasher to colonize the entire coast of Wallace and some of the closest landmasses, Koseman, Fermi, and Drake.

Though Sagan 4 has a long history of local extinctions caused by new aggressive predatory or competitive behavior, the mangrove smasher's destructive feeding habit has caused no extinctions, as it achieved equilibrium without becoming so aggressive as to permanently destroy its food source. Stretches of mangal recover from a period of heavy feeding just as readily as a forest recovers from a fire, closing up old smasher-made passageways through ecological succession.

Like its ancestor, the mangrove smasher has long spines that it can clap together in front of it to make a loud "thwack" sound, which males use to intimidate rivals while females and juveniles use it to scare potential predators. When not in use, these lay draped over its back like folded insect wings. The sound produced is audible even in water, and it is able to pick up the sound using the bones of its skull and spinal column. Males (pictured) are very fat and colorful as a sign of fitness, and the biggest, strongest, and loudest males will have the largest harems. Females are slimmer in comparison and only have drab striping on their bodies.

Mangrove smasher activity causes mangrovecrystal colonies to break and float away more often. This has resulted in the mangrovecrystal successfully colonizing King Temperate Coast.

There were updates to the biome system that I was not informed about and would have strongly objected to if I was more aware, and Mni has failed to respond or make fixes, so I'm gonna put it out here what rules are broken and why, and what you should or should not do instead.


treeline rule

QUOTE

- Barring Black and Glass flora, no macro flora large than 1 meter will be allowed in the terrestrial polar biome type. The biomes that this applies to are; Polar Beach, Polar River, Polar Lake, Polar Riparian, Moor, Polar Palus, Frostwood, Polar Scrub, Mamut, Barrens

The main issue here is black and glass flora magically being immune to permafrost. I don't know if Mni didn't know that permafrost is the actual reason plants can't get big in this biome or what, but black and glass flora would not, in fact, be immune to it and would have the same size restrictions as all other flora. Please do not submit black and glass flora over 1 meter in height to these biomes; while they are technically allowed by the letter of the rule, magic powers aren't technically disallowed either and that doesn't mean they should be approved.

This rule being broken also breaks the new frostwood biome. I suggest treating it similarly to the cactaiga biome from Serina--a very, very dense shrubland populated by short, hardy, cold-adapted plants. That is the closest thing there is to a real-world analogue.

Also of note: The tundra (which is inexplicably subpolar when it is very much a polar right-up-against-the-glaciers biome in real life) and alpine tundra are inexplicably excluded from the treeline rule now, even though they are literally what the treeline is named for in real life, and for some reason montane desert species have been added to some of the southern tundras. I suggest treating the treeline rule as though it includes them as well, because it is implausible for large flora to thrive there as now implied by the rules. I will be personally looking into doing something to kill off all the warm desert species and inexplicable trees in the tundras and other polar biomes if Mnidjm doesn't remove them as I have requested.

new mangal biomes
The new mangal biomes have made a complete mess of coastal ecosystems and any attempt to make semi-aquatic organisms. Among other things, it has made seafaring shrews impossible without wildcard...and most other semi-aquatic organisms that cross the ocean such as analogues to seals, sea turtles, seabirds, coconuts, and countless others. This is because an impossible amount of coastline has mangrove forests blocking the beach, and inexplicably have both beaches and mangrove swamps in the same place when that does not happen in real life.

I don't have any recommendation for handling these as a user. Instead, I would just like to demand that they be vastly reduced on the current map, some of them be removed outright, and preferably be made to replace beaches where they do occur. Mangrove-forming trees should still be present in non-mangal coasts where they evolved to inhabit, because they should be able to exist in small clusters there the same way you see trees in the plains and shrublands.

EDIT: Also, mangals should be part of the wetland flavor, as they are literally the same biome as the pre-existing coastal wetlands but everywhere for some reason. As in, the coastal wetlands have been treated as mangals the whole time, meaning we already had mangals the whole time.

EDIT 2: Apparently mangals are defined as a completely different biome and nobody told me nor was it ever stated publicly anywhere?

a minor note on migration
The addition of new temperature types and the maximum number per submission being increased to 3 means that most plausible migratory species no longer require an exception to the wildcard rule. Therefore, the unofficial "migratory exception" clause should now be ignored.

Apparently several people on the ~100 discord servers I'm on didn't know shrogs have pouches and reacted to this image with some form of "my life is a lie"

Wolfcollar Shrog (Lopholutrasorex tepidus) (warm crested-otter-shrew)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Wolvershrog
Habitat: King Temperate Coast, King Temperate Beach, Dorite Subtropical Bay, Dorite Subtropical Beach, Ofan Tropical Coast, Ofan Tropical Beach, Ofan Tropical Mangal, Chum Subtropical Coast, Chum Subtropical Mangal, Chum Subtropical Beach, Martyk Temperate Sea, Elerd Temperate Coast, Iituem Temperate Bay, Iituem Temperate Beach, Iituem Archipelago Temperate Beaches, Martyk Temperate Mangal, Martyk Temperate Beach, Martyk Archipelago Temperate Beaches, Elerd Temperate Mangal, Elerd Temperate Beach, Clarke Subtropical Coast, Clarke Subtropical Beach, Jeluki Subtropical Mangal, Javen Tropical Coast, Javen Tropical Mangal, Javen Tropical Beach, Koopa Subtropical Coast, Koopa Subtropical Mangal, Koopa Subtropical Beach, Jlindy Tropical Coast, Jlindy Tropical Mangal, Jlindy Tropical Beach, Ninth Subtropical Coast, Ninth Subtropical Beach, Ninth Subtropical Mangal, Dass Temperate Coast, Dass Temperate Beach
Size: 2.5 meters long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Carnivore (Magnificent Slaesosaurus, Saurohound, Slaesodon, Slaesosleekus, Pygmy Lyngbakr, Blueback Scylarian, Outtablue Scylarian, Tethyssie, Shrogsnapper, Polychrome Flagthroat, Tilepillar, Slender Scylarian, Aqueryn, Aabaalki, Crushermaw Scylarian, Fatcoat, Chopsticks Fatcoat, Spineflipper, Ceryco, Crushermaw Scylarian, Shipper Buoyskin, Seamaster Seaswimmer, weakened and juvenile Galleon Lyngbakr, weakened and juvenile Terrorfang Hafgufa), Occasional Frugivore (Mainland Fuzzpalm, Fuzzpile, Topship Fuzzpalm, Fuzzweed) Scavenger (beached Lyngbakrs)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Fur)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Placental, Pouch and Milk)

The wolfcollar shrog is descended from wolvershrogs that drifted to the newly-formed King Temperate Coast. It no longer ventures far out to sea, preferring to stay close to shore on much smaller and simpler rafts. It is both a part and a product of an ongoing feedback loop which is in the process of driving the ancestral wolvershrog to extinction, where their massive nests became less sustainable due to the ecosystem catching up to the increased presence of wood at sea, thus they produce more restricted and often aggressive descendants that stop making huge nests, which in turn outcompete their ancestor in much of its range and cut them off from inland sources of wood, further reducing wood availability and increasing pressure on remaining wolvershrog populations to adapt. With the wolfcollar shrog's appearance, the wolvershrog has vanished from LadyM Temperate Ocean and North Jujubee Temperate Ocean.

The wolfcollar shrog is named for the spikes on its neck, which resemble the spiked collars worn by terran dogs to protect their necks from wolves. They serve a similar purpose: wolfcollar shrogs have significantly more territorial disputes than most shrogs due to their narrow range and high dietary needs and are willing to kill each other over it, so the neck spikes evolved to guard their throats. This also, in a sense, makes them both the wolves and the dogs in the analogy. These are present in both males and females. Their head spikes have become crests, which help signal health to rivals and potential mates.

The wolfcollar shrog has thinner fur than its ancestor and lacks thick layers of fat, but it retains bulk in the form of muscles. Just as strong as the wolvershrog, the wolfcollar shrog uses its strength to move heavy logs and rafts over land, wrestle with prey, and fight rivals. Similar to its ancestor, it lives and hunts in groups. These groups are much larger, however, generally around 50 shrogs maximum but they can rarely number in the hundreds. A single group will control several kilometers of coastline and will fight neighboring groups. In a rather unshroglike fashion, they organize, invade, and kill mercilessly in something almost resembling war. Similar to Terran chimpanzees, their tools go unused in warfare; they instead use their teeth, claws, and tail to maim and kill. They can sometimes seem very cruel, dismembering cubs and tearing off faces and crests, but this serves a genuine purpose as a demoralizing display of power so that the opposing group will flee rather than fight back, reducing total deaths and energy used fighting. In some disputes, such as for territory expansion, females will be captured and left alive to be added to the conquerors' gene pool (though any of their existing cubs will be killed), while in cases of food shortage they will kill any that don't escape. They aren't especially amicable to other species of shrog either, particularly seashrogs which they compete with, but they only kill them during extreme food shortages.

The wolfcollar shrog is more bipedal than other shrogs, and in females its pouch faces forwards instead of backwards, more like that of a kangaroo. Males still retain a backwards-facing pouch to protect their external reproductive organs while swimming, similar to other shrogs. Adept bipedalism allows the wolfcollar shrog to keep its balance while using tools more effectively, which is important on its much smaller rafts which are more susceptible to being tossed by small waves.

The rafts of wolfcollar shrogs are not used as nests, but as mobile platforms to navigate the coasts. A long blunt stick, longer and thicker than a spear, is used to push the raft along in the direction the shrog wants to go, so it isn't entirely at the mercy of wind and currents, and they are dragged onto land above the high tide line when not in use. Prey items are stabbed to death with wooden spears and are brought back to shore to be shared with the rest of the group. Larger prey or groups of smaller prey will be hunted by many wolfcollar shrogs at once to ensure a successful kill, especially as some of their larger prey will just as readily eat the shrogs. Periodic large catches are necessary to feed them all, so they communicate vocally with one another to gather for a hunt. Their vocalizations don't differ much from those of other shrogs, though the unique "family name" feature of wolvershrogs has been repurposed into the name for an entire social group.

The wolfcollar shrog builds dens on the beach or above water in the mangrove swamp. These dens are more like typical shrog nests, being domes or squashed spheres with wooden "rib" supports arranged in a radial pattern held together by woven flora and glue made from chewed fuzzpalm berries. They lack much of the complexity of the ancestral wolvershrog's nests, but some instinctual vestige is clearly visible in mangal populations, which will construct deck-like rings around them so as to avoid the water below. These are widely spaced and belong to no specific shrog; as the group moves up and down their territory to hunt, they stop and rest at various dens they have already constructed, which are stocked with tools so that they don't have to carry a large number with them or make new ones every time they break.

The wolfcollar shrog is no longer monogamous, and it lacks a mating season. Males will show off their crests and wrestle as a display of health and strength to receptive females. A female will never choose a male with smaller crests than her own, which can cause frustration in small-crested males and ones that lost theirs in combat. However, though wolfcollar shrogs can be aggressive and pushy, as is their nature in all other things, unwanted mating advances are very rare because they require getting past an axe tail capable of severing limbs.

Like its ancestor, the wolfcollar shrog is both placental and pouched. To avoid overpopulation in its narrow range, it has just one or two cubs at a time. Gestation lasts 6 months and newborn cubs are blind and helpless. The cubs don't start to grow their spikes or saws until they are about two years old; they are weaned after one, but remain able to enter the pouch for protection for longer and are brought on hunting trips. It is common to see a cub poking out of its mother's pouch with a miniature spear of its own jabbing at gilltails in the water while its mother scans for larger prey, allowing it to practice before it's big enough to stay balanced on rafts and aid in real hunts. Once they graduate from the pouch, juveniles continue to tag along on hunting trips and help take down smaller prey, but will also aid in making tools and maintaining dens. They reach full size in about 10 years but will sometimes disperse at the age of 8; dispersing juveniles ensure there is some spread of genes between different social groups.

The wolfcollar shrog originally evolved along King Temperate Coast, but it spread to encircle the supercontinent and made its way to offshore islands and even Koseman. With its long narrow range restricting breeding opportunities, like many widespread coastal animals on Earth it is actually a ring species--though all neighboring groups can interbreed, wolfcollar shrogs from the two far extremes of its range, Elerd Temperate Coast and Dass Temperate Coast, cannot produce fertile offspring with one another if they were to somehow meet.

The wolfcollar shrog caused the following species to spread when it evolved:
- Mainland Fuzzpalm to King Temperate Beach
- Fuzzpile to King Temperate Beach
- Topship Fuzzpalm to King Temperate Beach
- Fuzzweed to King Temperate Beach
- Cleaner Borvermid to King Temperate Beach
- False Cleaner Borvermid to King Temperate Beach

Chopsticks Fatcoat (Scipiodon caseimaculus) (cheese-spotted stick-tooth)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Fatcoat
Habitat: Dorite Subtropical Bay, King Temperate Coast, Clarke Subtropical Coast, Dorite Subtropical Beach, King Temperate Beach, Clarke Subtropical Beach, Jeluki Subtropical Mangal, Always Temperate Mangal
Size: 80 cm long
Support: Endoskeleton (Jointed Wood)
Diet: Carnivore (Digging Filterpeders, Scuttlers, Lesser Bloisters, Frabukis, Grabbyswarmers, Hitchhiker Scuttler, Minifee, Bulky Hammerhead, Charybdaran, Barnapede, Kiturorm, Burraroms, Flat Swarmer, Rugged Scuttler)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Cotton, Blubber)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Live Birth)

The chopsticks fatcoat split from its ancestor. It is named for its long narrow fangs, which resemble, are used similarly to, and are referred to as chopsticks. It probes for food buried under sand or hidden in flora, and when it finds something it grips it between its chopsticks and pulls it out. It then uses its prehensile tongue to stun or kill the prey item and pull it into its mouth. It has an unusually short tongue for a gulper, not even reaching the end of its chopsticks when fully extended, as it is not used as much for prey capture.

A social creature, the chopsticks fatcoat basks in large groups on the beach, out of reach of aquatic predators and more easily able to defend themselves against terrestrial ones. However, it breaks up into smaller groups to search for food, maintaining some safety in numbers without scaring away all of their potential prey. The chopsticks fatcoat is more aquatic-adapted than its ancestor and no longer capable of standing upright as an adult, instead crawling like a worm or bouncing along on its belly. Juveniles can still stand up, allowing them to look around for predators. It and other fatcoats hold their breath by closing the tail nostril on the inside close to the hip, ensuring that they won't drown from having a tail injury, and will blow water from the nostril when they surface.

The chopsticks fatcoat usually mates on land. Males will compete over receptive females, nipping and tugging at each other's tails, flippers, ears, and eyes with their chopsticks and attempting to body-slam one another. The biggest and toughest males get the most mating opportunities. Gestation lasts about a month and females will give birth to 3-6 small fluffy babies. Newborns lack chopsticks and will hide in flora on or close to the shore until they are big enough to paddle against waves, at which point they will begin following their mother out to sea. Hiding at an early age also serves another purpose: aggressive males will sometimes kill newborns unrelated to them to eliminate competition and to make the females receptive to mating again, so staying hidden helps protect them from this behavior.

When the adults go out hunting, the juveniles will float on the water above them waiting for adults to pass them small morsels, staying afloat as effortlessly as a duck thanks to their thick baby fat and the air trapped in their cotton. This might seem to make them vulnerable to predators, but the adults keep an eye out--if they see something swoop or lunge for the babies, they will swim up and grab them with their chopsticks to pull them under. The babies reflexively hold their breath when grabbed, preventing them from inhaling sea water. When the threat has passed, or when the babies start to run out of oxygen, the adults let go of them and they float back to the surface, sometimes a distance away from where they were before. Despite this method of defense, many babies are still lost to predators.

All the habitats in between must be listed. All species must be listed by name and I don't think it's gonna find shrews small enough to eat out there.

Body length needs to be included.

Oceans isn't a valid genus region

I...don't think you know what types and flavors are.

this is in 3 types and 3 flavors. temperate/subtropical/montane and woodland/rainforest/shrubland.

(Note: I drew everything here.)

Now for something a little crazy: the tale of Troll Sagan 4, which is much longer and complicated and will need to be split into parts. See, there's troll versions of an unexpected number of things. There's a troll Will Smith, literally just named Troll Will Smith. There's a troll Adam Sandler, literally named Troll Adam Sandler. There's a troll John Cusack, literally named Troll John Cusack. There's a troll Betty Crocker, literally named Her Imperi--

Wait.

Okay, pushing Crockerian nonsense aside, for some reason there is also a Troll Sagan 4. Founded by 5 friends, two indigobloods (Hydrom Ancerx and Yoktou Cythil), a rustblood (Huggak Krukka), a goldblood (who went only by the screen name The Eggbeast), and a limeblood (Krakow Samuel), they just wanted to have some fun evolving creatures. And what a weird world they created, where plants are green instead of purple (apart from those beautiful amethyst-looking crystal plants, also coming in yellow, deep blue, and white), and where basically everything else is exactly the same as our Sagan 4 Alpha for the first 8 Wipes [Weeks] or so apart from color differences. Well, there were other differences, but I'll get to them later. But everything changed in Wipe 9.

In Wipe 9, Generation 57, The Eggbeast submitted the troll version of the feathered sauceback, here known as the feathered saucebeast.

In Generation 59, one hit wonder RomanticFurScience submitted the bloodbonding saucebeast.

QUOTE

Bloodbonding Saucebeast (Plumatherium quadrantus) Creator: RomanticFurScience Ancestor: Feathered Saucebeast Habitat: Wright Dimwoods, Ittizz-Eggbeast Desert, Hydrom-Nuke Dimplains, Eggbeast-Hydrom Darkplains Size: 110 cm tall Diet: Carnivore (anything in the 0.5 - 4 m long range) Reproduction: Sexual, Eggs, Two Genders The bloodbonding saucebeast replaced its ancestor the feathered saucebeast. It has evolved a hemospectrum and quadrants fur even stronger social bonds. It can't s33 that it has a hemospectrum though but it can smell it. Its packs can be very large now with the alpha females usually being fuchsiablood all the way down to the rustblood omega. This k33ps the packs in order fur greater unison so they can hunt larger prey! The four quadrants also k33p the bloodbonding saucebeast packs from falling apart from conflickt by giving efurry pack member romantic bonds with many packmates of diffurent ranks! Efurry rank on the hemospectrum inside a pack is interlinked with the others by these quadrants, so that the highbloods will always have reason to care fur the lowbloods and so the lowbloods will not be left out by their rank. Some younger packs don't have efurry blood color, being formed starting with disfursal midbloods which form quadrant relationships with disfursal saucebeasts lower and higher on the hemospectrum. The bloodbonding saucebeast is grey because silfury feathers reflect harsh sunlight if it is caught out in the open at dawn, while still k33ping it nice and hidden in the dark of night (=^ω^=)

The initial version of this submission was worse, being in all caps, filled with emoticons, and significantly more puns, and she had to be reminded of the strict policy against distracting typing quirks in species descriptions. Further, she had initially mistaken the saucebeast nostrils for eyes and had to come up with an explanation as to how it can have a hemospectrum without being able to see. It was approved, but in frustration with the effort to type normally, RomanticFurScience never submitted another species.

This had significant repercussions in the following few Wipes. also not bothering with gen numbers after this point because it's too much work shh


"Oil glands, a great way to keep eggs moist, have begun to develop on the fivetail saucebeast, allowing it to incubate its eggs more effectively. It has gained extra tails, in reality duplicant stumps like in the original stumpbeast, which help it to spread itself out over a clutch of eggs."

"The galloping saucebeast replaced its ancestor. The fivetail saucebeast has grown from a small creature with many tails to a creature capable of sprinting on six legs. ... Another large change is that the egg-moistening glands on the saucebeast's belly have begun to produce a "milk" like substance, though it's still too primitive to be very useful so it still feeds its grubs solid food."

"The grubsaucebeast has also developed better parental care and it has evolved an actual milk line that has teats, mammary glands, and other tissues."

And from there, as the Wipes pass in-game and the perigees pass in real life...

(Troll Cheatsy made centaur clones)

(Troll Somarinoa fixed the jaws...and evidently also turned filtersquids into horrorterrors)

(...Uh-oh.)

Of course, those are not the only kinds of saucebeast around still...

Including non-hexapod hemospectral saucebeasts that DIDN'T turn their jaws into horns...

and more basal saucebeasts that drink plent blood...

...but a familiar drama is on the horizon.

Stay tuned for part 2 where the Homestuck connection in this alternate Sagan 4 becomes more obvious and irreversible because I don't want to write the WHOLE THING tonight

How do they make the pupa? What is described sounds like they waste energy to do an unnecessary step of making their bodies hard and then softening them back up later when there is no reason they can't have functional juveniles.

Locally or globally?

I think the "pupa" of this group might need more elaboration than this. Pupation came out of nowhere in this lineage and might actually be detrimental.