It's good to see more bloodsuckers.
Otherwise...there's not much to say. The description's pretty small, and the art pretty basic, by your standards.

Right...bar-headed geese must have been uncrowned as the highest-flying bird by the Rüppell's vulture when I wasn't looking. I suppose I wanted more details for such an extreme-altitude lifestyle.

"initial stage of life." That doesn't sound quite right. I recommend "first stage".
It has a remarkable resemblance to the Hellworm of the Beta Timeline. It's an interesting case of convergent evolution.
I like the dramatic pose and supplemental image.

I had guessed just from looking at it that it must be doing a stoop like a peregrine falcon.
Flying saucebacks have quite the ecological influence. They're probably going to be listed as a major development for this Week.

Just out of curiosity...what's its body temperature range, and how does it maintain it at such extreme altitudes? I ask because geese and turkey vultures, which are somewhat comparable, seem to have differing ways of regulating body temperatures. 10 km up would be -60 C (-76 Fahrenheit), assuming Earthlike conditions and that the following sourceapplies. For comparison, the highest-flying kind of bird, thebar-headed goose, seems to have a maximum of 7.29 kilometers up, and usually flies much lower.

It might not be out of the question huge blackflora forests could affect temperatures in the air above them, but I'm not sure if it would substantially lower temperatures that high up.

I would like to complete this submission soon. Will it be necessary to modify its intelligence, behavioral range, and picture?

It's interesting to see this having particular advantages in particular lifestyles relative to skysnappers or flying saucebacks. The sky's getting crowded.

It's nice to see plents with green tongues: it's not often seen.

"Expendable structures" or "distractors" could work, although I don't know if that's the correct scientific term.

Three guesses for Colddigger's favorite organism.

Thee are no organisms by the name of "Twin-Tail". Did you mean Chasing Twintail or perhaps Twinpaw Twintail? (Although the latter would be proportionately large.)

How would the wings serve as decoys? They don't look like other parts of the body.

" shut in life" Shut-in life.
"low growing flora," Low-growing.

I'll go over the rest later.

" laid into burrow" I know reproductive methods are usually capitalized, but I really don't know what to do with that one.
Otherwise, I see nothing else to improve. It looks good.

Try using the magic wand tool (if you're using GIMP, at least) over the white background specifically, and then simply using the eraser button set to a high size. Personally, I think the contrast-enhanced one does not look as good as the original, so just use the original for this.

I'll check over the sentences later.

Do they have any notable behaviors for raising or protecting young?
"North Darwin tropical Woodland" Has a capitalization error.
This would probably accelerate the rise of nocturnal behaviors in especially vulnerable or favored prey, since almost all of them are diurnal.

I was hoping to show it from an angle other than directly from the side, because showing organisms only from a direct side view does get dull after a while. I'll have to adjust the tail, nails and butt-nostril and make it a little more lithe, but, otherwise, it's a good basis.

The art looks fairly good. I like the variation in color patterns and fins.

There's a stray, un-filled line on the back wing of the brown Sruglette in the middle.

Increasing the contrast to reduce the distraction fo the paper texture is good. Certainly, the smudge at the bottom and the piece of the desk (?) at the upper-right should bbe removed, such as by trimming.


There's a spacing error after Silkruggs.

It would probably look better to put: "Omnivore (When perched in obvious position: Sapworms, Xenobees [...])", unless it's only Dartirs under the conditional part. "Hair Nimbuses" should be capitalized.

This seems to be almost entirely a carnivore. The Wolvershrog is listed with "carnivore" and "frugivore" separately, not as an omnivore listing meat first and fruit second. For these to match in their logic, diet rules really need to be clarified.

Remember to capitalize terms in the template.

"Descending from the cryobowler srugeing[...] This sentence needs to be modified so it's less breathless. Splitting it into two sentences or using a colon could work.

"Sruglings are a global genus[...]" this sentence needs to be split apart, and the name should be updated.

"consume prey,[...]" This sentence needs to be revised, such as by splitting it into two. That is also true for "Most species are fairly short-lived[...]" and "The biggest example[...]" and
"Almost all of these[...]". Try reading the sentences out loud to determine breathless sentences.

"eachother" (x3) Each other.

"All srugling [sic] species[...]" The parenthetical statement is so lengthy I recommend splitting it into its own sentence.

"their bristled beak" Their bristled beak.

"In summary, sruglings are the extremely generalist descendants of the cryobowler srugeing that have spread across the globe due to their ability to spawn just about anywhere, including the ocean, and the removal of the need to moisturize their lungs with water. They coexist with their ancestor due to the fact that they have lost the proteins to disable carnivorous cryobowl enzymes and the annuality of the cryobowler’s adult life."

With a slight adjustment, you could put this at the beginning as a brief summary for a long description, much as I made a brief summary for the long description for the Pollooks genus group in the Beta timeline.

" with females exclusively going out to forage while for males its a bit more variable depending on the status of its particular burrow. "
If some males do also forage, that would suggest that, among the species in general, the females are not the only ones ("exclusively") foraging. I recommend: "Females obtain food only by going out to forage, while whether males forage varies depending on the status of its particular burrow".
"While their ancestor did have a row of spines on their back," Its back.
"claws and face." Faces.
Do the males and females have slightly different coloration on their forelegs and flanks, or is that just natural variation, or a result of individual drawings not being identical?
I like the drawings and concepts.

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Oct 26 2021, 11:29 PM)

I think Ovifan is making a species kinda like that You use really thick lines.

It was only a sketch, so I didn't pay much attention to the thinness of the lines. The lines have a size of 7: it's just a small image compared to what you make because, well, it's a sketch. I didn't want to put too much effort into something I would have to scrap or massively re-draw. In any case, as long as we make ours in separate areas, convergent evolution can justify having the two similar-looking submissions, though this one is lower-priority than my Fermi ideas.

Subgenus? That seems important enough to put on the forum ahead of time. Are those supposed to be equivalent to a small but widely-spread genus of owls, as compared to a genus of many species of, say, carpenter ants?
I suppose you could make a bald eagle or fishing owl-esque species adapted to the ocean or large lakes, if you haven't done that already, unless the concept strays too much from the others.

I impulsively made another Dundi, this time a Treedundi descendant that glides like a colugo. It's not as good at flying as its batlike physiology might suggest: its ancestor already had spindly limbs.
The hind toes function as bird-like halluxes. It is lightweight and small and uses its ears as stabilizers. It has a small tail: the line above it is some kind of fleshy padding, because otherwise it would look too weird, and it already looks weird.
Knobbiness was added to the joints just to remind me of their positions.

I realized I forgot the spur-toes on the back hind legs. Do not point that out in a reply.

Fermi being a multicultural potluck makes so much sense, with its Fermisaurs and Shrog-spread organisms and immigrating species from the less Fermisaur-dominated places to the south.
The idea of a single Dark World being created or influenced by 100 Lightners is quite interesting, given the scale of the Dark World(s) seems so small now.

Ornamented hobbies: Are you sure that shouldn't be "hobies"? There are several falcon species called hobbies.
" their burrow." Its burrow.
"females having to do this especially." How so? Do the males not need to eat as much?
"strength, the" The comma should be a period.
" their eye." That's some odd grammar.

Beyond being more flexible than bones, how would you propose they differ in regards to joints and limb shape? Fewer bones, perhaps? Some missing sections? Do you have an alternative arrangement of bones for the Dundigger, which can be used as an educational reference for the shape of the hind limbs of its descendant? It doesn't seem OviraptorFan's re-draw was contested on the basis of inaccurate joints, despite its tetrapod-like configuration.

At the time, I had left the mouthparts not finalized. (see previous message.) That's why it looks bad.

I knew about the third toe, but assumed it wouldn't be visible from this angle. I could re-draw it to just barely fit it in.
In fact, I used your Dundigger sketch as a reference. The Dundigger is drawn as if it's plantigrade, or at least has its sole and the tips of its toes in contact with the ground. If the latter, flattening the footprint seems plausible.


On second thought...the bones are supposed to be a modified digitigrade form, right? I assembled the digitigrade form into something that looks fairly plausible as a back-of-the-napkin calculation, though the angle of the lower bones seems off. If it has a fatty foot cushion on the heel, it would appear plantigrade, much like how elephants' actual foot configuration is disguised by fatty tissue.

If it breeds up to six times a year, but the winters would logically be long and harsh...is "six times a year" only in lab conditions? Judging by the length of the warm season in Barrow, Alaska, used as a proxy for the tundra in general, if it uses only the warm season proper, assuming a weaning age of 28 days (the standard for rats), it should be able to fit in 3.64 batches if maximally productive, or 4.8 if weaned at 21 days, the standard for lab rats specifically. Unless, of course, it can do the same trick kangaroos do and can have one baby out of the pouch nearly mature, another in the pouch, and another embryo paused inside her body.
Does the fluff overrun its tufts even in summer?

Does its diet change in the winter relative to the summer? I don't think all flora in its diet go dormant. Does it gorge on food, accumulating a layer of fat, takes and stores food, or some combination of both? Does it still have sexual display tufts like its ancestor?

Oh, that makes things easier. My biggest concern was actually whether the proportions are plausible. I'm well aware of the mistakes I've made with the legs and feet of Dundis.

QUOTE (CosmoRomanticist @ Oct 25 2021, 12:03 PM)

From a practical standpoint, I think this is good, but I think we should all make little guys and things for their own sake, or when we see an opportunity knocking (an unexploited niche, an implausible lack of X or Y) as opposed to just when some More Interesting creature needs something to eat in X habitat.

I agree with that, but the end points are still good, regardless of the motivations. You might have noticed the Quillotestudo genus (namely the Pioneer Quillprong and its close relative, the Pioneer Quillball) have quite a lot of descendants between them. Almost all of the ones I made for that group, I made for their own sake, not with particular ideas to support herbivores or, eventually, cool predators. Over time, the Quillotestudo flora I made became substantial parts of the diet of various herbivores, such as Ramchins, which mainly eat "fuzzy purple flora" (Quillotestudo flora). However, I made the general idea of a Falseglox first and designed Larachoys, Alpine Hedgelogs, and Alpine Cirruses just to justify its loosely Haglox-esque coloration and give it a food source in Drake Alpine, which, at the time, only had Loafpicks as local organisms. Over time, others may similarly take advantage of those flora, functionally making them like the Quillotestudo flora I made for their own sake.

Posting "little guy" ideas, sketches, making swaps, or posting about interesting real-life animals that could inspire "little guy" organisms seem good ways to gently encourage local-level bottom-of-the-food-chain organisms.

This is the sketch for the Dune Dundigger, for the Dixon Dunes. I haven't finalized the mouth yet, because I want to know how strong the jaw should be. Its diet would overlap with the Pink Scrambler, so it makes sense it would specialize in something Pink Scramblers don't eat, or don't eat as much.
Any input on the pose or proportions? It's based on a black-tailed jackrabbit, with proportions adjusted so it wouldn't be too much of a jump from the Dundigger, although, given Dundigger life history, I probably could afford to change the proportions more in a single jump.

Yes, I know it has rather short hands for a Dundi, despite my attempts to lengthen them. It's hard to alter the hands for running in open habitats but keep them recognizably spindly for the lineage. In later stages, I plan to add some calluses or pads to the palms.