This seems like a really big jump though. Wouldn't it be easier to evolve to have nematocysts around the mouth?

Is there precedent for this in a real-world animal? The tail is ectoderm while the digestive system is endoderm and I don't think they can just switch like that.

The mouth is opposite the tail. Why did it evolve to stop using its mouth to eat and to use its tail instead?

Why does it eat through its tail instead of its mouth?

fixed

They don't grow underwater. I've edited with clarity.

You cannot submit a descendant of something not approved.

Is this a hybrid? How did the ancestors hybridize?

Crystals wouldn't really benefit from these at all, though. Neither would any other mixotrophic flora.

Actually, only purple flora and black flora are anything like Earth plants. Everything else is significantly and explicitly completely different and would not be compatible with this, most notably crystal flora.

The warning only works if there's something with the same appearance that actually is poisonous. Fauna are smart and learn that orange doesn't mean poison and they eat it.

IN ADDITION, the cell type used to do colors like that in cephalopods and reptiles are LOST in all endotherms on Earth. It is reasonable to conclude that they would be in shrews as well.

Shrews lost the ability to do color change, which happened before the gained fur as well, which in turn prevents the crazy color stuff from happening in them. Cephalopods did not "master pigments" nor did early spondylozoans. Chromatophores are just pigment sacs that open and close and are restricted by pigment types and structural color.

If we're getting into storms and being blown off course that's sweepstakes dispersal and shouldn't be used.

Swamp beans are fauna. Those foi are gonna get tossed and turned away from them in a single wave and die.

I mean...they can also evolve a boney core. There's no reason they can't. Shrogs did it.

I'm not so sure about the iceblaster because it comes off as a heavily-built creature that would prefer not to approach water, let alone board a raft.

I have a hard time imagining the Polar Thaworm successfully boarding a raft, or staying on.

Carpet Foi's feeding method does not sound conductive to riding the rafts. If the Ittiz Foi retains it, it might not fare much better.

Feces Shellworm is a burrower and I have a hard time imagining it boarding the rafts or surviving on them.

Spiracles alone are not a respiration method.

This is a distinct genus from its ancestor.

I disagree. A wading animal is not a swimming animal. The sauceback would still jump right off once that thing starts moving if it boards it at all, which I think it would only do if it was firmly stuck close to where it wades.

QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Sep 8 2022, 12:34 AM)

So uh, a redraw of the Beach Cheekhorn is coming soon. It might help clarify some bits of its anatomy and thus might be important to consider for this guy.

Your redraws are not canon or definitive.

yeah, these guys don't need anything but their claws to dig in ice

The ancestor already did the fission thing to reproduce asexually in midair. It could probably be modified into more energy-efficient budding now that it isn't flying, though.

Glacialshrog (Luterursus spondyloraptor) (backbone-thief otter-bear)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Wolvershrog
Habitat: North Sagan 4 Ice Sheet, Day Glacial Beach, Day Polar Coast, Bumpy Polar Coast, Bumpy Polar Beach
Size: 4 meters long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Carnivore (Fatruck, Vicious Seaswimmer, Bejeweled Emperor Scylarian, Needlenose Scylarian, Icehog, Emperor Seaswimmer, Migrating Glowsnapper, young and weakened Umbrascale Lyngbakr, young/weakened/isolated male Viridimaw Lyngbakr, juvenile Cruelfang Hafgufa, Arostrolarian, Cervicilarian, Protelareous, Cornularian, Ruberarian, Snappermaw Scylarian, Scavenger Scylarian, Megascooter, Shorthorn Scylarian, Tileback, Wading Leafshell, Elegant Nailfin, Squat Limbless, Purple Phlock, Shortface Sauceback, Feral Tuskent, Blowtongue, Grubnub), Scavenger
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Fur)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Placental, Pouch and Milk)

When Drake drifted over the north pole, there was a drop in temperature which in turn caused the northern ice sheet to advance. Wolvershrogs, unable to control where their nests drifted, commonly became stranded on the ice, as did many other oceanic creatures, most of which died. However, the wolvershrogs had some major advantages which allowed them to survive: their food stores provided ample food while they learned to hunt and craft in their new environment, and as they already hunted prey from their floating nests, they had no trouble doing the same from atop the ice as well. As food supplies ran out and they switched entirely to their new hunting and crafting methods, these trapped wolvershrogs eventually diverged into a new species, the glacialshrog, which ultimately replaced its ancestor in the polar coasts surrounding Drake due to hunting from atop ice being far more energy efficient. This has also caused the wolvershrog to vanish from other polar biomes in Drake, including Bumpy Polar Mangal, Drake Frostwood, and Drake Polar Scrub.

Glacialshrogs, like most shrogs, are tool users, but as no trees can grow on ice, they primarily use tools made from the skeletal components of the various fauna they eat. One of the basic glacialshrog tools is one made from the J- or checkmark-shaped wooden “backbone” of the fatruck, which can be gnawed smooth and modified into a hook or something like a small harpoon. Bones harvested from increasingly large fauna allow the construction of larger, sturdier tools. Glacialshrogs have huge teeth that would allow them to kill most of their prey items on their own, but tools create a handle that can be more easily grabbed and is very effective at slowing their prey down. This makes hunting with tools more consistent and sustainable for meeting their energy needs. Instead, the huge teeth are used to hold onto prey when dragging it onto ice or shore to feast.

As glacialshrogs no longer cut down trees, their tails rapidly reverted back to the purpose it had in their marine tamow ancestors: swimming. The saw has been replaced with a fluke. Likewise, their entire body is more streamlined. Only very large marine predators would mess with a glacialshrog, so there was no need to retain large spikes that create drag. The lunate tail allows glacialshrogs to pursue prey over long distances. A larger wounded prey item such as a young lyngbakr attracts other glacialshrogs to aid in the hunt, and they work as a group to drag their catch onto the ice.

Not all things glacialshrogs eat are caught with tools. Most notably, they will break into fatruck burrows from above to kill and eat the pups using only their teeth and claws. There is often an adult present as well, which a glacialshrog can easily overpower and kill. This is the main way a glacialshrog with no tools will get started--by killing an adult parent fatruck and harvesting its bones. They will also harvest bones, as well as vast amounts of meat, from beached megafauna such as lyngbakrs, as well as hunt terrestrial creatures along the beaches either with or without tools.

Glacialshrogs have far less complicated social lives than wolvershrogs. Hardened by the harsh conditions atop the ice, they are generally more solitary and are unlikely to interact amicably outside of breeding or group mob hunting. Likewise, some of the complexity of their ancestral vocalizations is lost. Family names have vanished entirely and name-barking as a whole is inconsistent. Most other vocalizations and body language remain intact, but amicable vocalizations are almost exclusive to family groups. Glacialshrogs are now also capable of bellowing as a threat. The ancestral image of a benevolent “Santa Claus shrog” is gone, as a glacialshrog is more likely to kill and eat other shrog species that drift too far north than to aid them.

Without any readily-available building material but ice, glacialshrog nests are exclusively made from it. In the permanent ice sheets, they make spherical nests that might remind one of an igloo, where they store tools and pack chunks of meat in ice for later consumption, effectively using it as a natural deep freezer. This method of food storage also allows glacialshrog parents to leave their young alone for days or even weeks while they hunt, as the juveniles can dig up and thaw some meat to consume whenever they are hungry. Juveniles will also wander from the nest and stab at gilltails and other small fauna through holes in the ice, should they prefer fresh meat, which gives them valuable practice for hunting larger fauna later.

Glacialshrogs form mated pairs, but only for two years. They mate during the summer and have a gestation period of about 9-10 months, giving birth to 3-5 cubs in the spring. Cubs are blind and helpless, but already have a full coat of fur which insulates them against the harsh polar conditions once they’re licked dry. The pouch is present but usually foregone, as glacialshrogs are more aquatic than their ancestor and can’t risk drowning their cubs. Both parents proceed to raise their cubs for about a year longer, but eventually the father leaves and the mother continues raising them alone. At the age of 3, the cubs are able to start learning how to hunt, and they are theoretically capable of independence at 5 but usually stay with their mother until they are 8 years old. Slow growers due to their large brains, like their ancestor they become fertile before they reach full size, though this is more of a consequence of their bodies preparing for adulthood and they don’t always mate at this point. Generally, when they do mate, fertile adolescents will only mate with others their age. They are fertile at 11 years old and fully grown at 13.

I recall when I made the seashrog and was choosing what fauna to spread, I was careful to only include those that were likely to actually board the nest and not jump off in a panic when it started moving. Which ended up being exactly one creature that wasn't already in a direct relationship with the seashrog's ancestors. I suggest trying to take the same care with what fauna you choose to spread.

The hairs were seemingly meant to be small. You wouldn't depict a gecko's hairs in a drawing.