I had originally confused the lemupus background with the "Dixon-Darwin High Grassland - Hornface and Tigmadar" image. Height information for Tigmadars is not given, so I guessed about 1.7 m from the tip of the toes to the top of the ears if they were standing up straight, so they'd be more than 11 feet tall.

Indeed, I do like Undertale and Deltarune.
I also prefer people send me messages to alert me rather than shouting across the room with an atsign-message.
I was going through my works with backgrounds to see which one would be most suitable for this meme. Hilariously, I'm pretty sure Kris and Susie are absolutely huge according to the scale of your image.

....I did not consider the possibility the player could be the monarch. Apparently I'm controlling some teen's body to give my son friends. The child-support theory actually makes a weird amount of sense, if one is slightly estranged from reality.

I made a lengthy post series, with updates with Chapter 2, proposing Lightners can exert some form of subtle mind control on Darkners. It's largely textually supported, even into Chapter 2, though there are also alternative explanations. I proposed, in an authoritative way, that Ralsei behaved oddly due to having a crush on Kris long before Chapter 2 made it obvious.

QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Oct 10 2021, 10:19 AM)

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Oct 10 2021, 12:17 PM) I think Spinebacked Probefaces were erroneously kept extant. Its descendant, the Acucravat, mentions replacing it. It's possible the replacement note was not noticed because it wasn't at the beginning of the organism description. Oh it actually is still alive, because its descendant only replaces it on the Temperate Beach of Fermi, not the Polar Beach.

That's true, but I was specifically checking out Fermi Temperate Beach as of Week 26, as I was looking to update Hypnotizer Waxfaces' diet. Right at the top of the Fermi Temperate Beach list is the Spinebacked Probeface.

I think Spinebacked Probefaces were erroneously kept extant. Its descendant, the Acucravat, mentions replacing it. It's possible the replacement note was not noticed because it wasn't at the beginning of the organism description.

The genus name for the Fan Bloister was also changed from "Celebratio" to "Flabellator", for no clear reason. Its descendant, the Flamboyant Fan Bloister, keeps the genus name "Celebratio".

Will it be necessary to modify the description to lower its intelligence and behavioral range, or to modify the picture? Once I develop it beyond a sketch, it will be harder to modify.

Your typo on the Little Bloisters topic inspired a hilarious mental image.

Reduced to 77% of original (913 x 685)

"A Little Bloister, shopping at Sam's [Club]".

(In case you didn't know, Sam's Club is a members-only retail store in the U.S., kind of like Wal-Mart.)

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"Wide scoops for those"[...] This sentence doesn't make sense. An easy solution is shifting the order of parts of the sentence. The following is a framework:

"Species that collect sand and sift out debris have wide scoops,"

". Large fan like structures for sifting Open water[...]" can be altered in the same way.

"Open water" has a capitalization error.

"are very wildly" You probably meant "vary wildly".

"their species lives." The species lives.

"Sam's". sand.

"Flora or near them" has a capitalization error.

Remember to increase contrast on the image. The papery background is distracting.

I recommend using a name other than "Little Bloisters". It doesn't sound at all like a real animal clade's name.

"Minibloisters" could work, if you don't care about originality, or "Long-Scooped Bloisters" if you want it to sound like a plausible clade name. You could also use "Least Bloisters", to link it to things like least terns or least weasels, or "Lesser Bloisters", although those two do sound mean.

Admittedly, checking Wikipedia reveals the "least weasel" is also called the "little weasel", though it doesn't seem to be the standard name. There's also the little red flying fox. However, in general, using "little" in the name seems to be rare.


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There should be a scientific name immediately after the common name, which is enclosed in parentheses.

You should specify whether they're 10-20 cm long or 10-20 cm wide.


They're logically ectotherms. Most invertebrates are.

It's best to specify the feeding range for planktivores. Technically, both sponges and blue whales are planktivores, but krill is much bigger than what most sponges eat.

Please trim the artwork to have less empty space on the sides. It should also remove the artifacts of scanning (the dark areas) at the bottom, or, better yet, go under a quick processing on an image editor like GIMP or Krita to increase contrast and get rid of the paper details.

The details in the reproduction part of the template, as well as the word "exoskeleton" under support, should be capitalized. It would be ideal to specify what its skeleton is made of, unless, in its ancestry, it was never specified.

"scavengers, Planktivores, and Detritivores" "Planktivores" and "Detritivores" are capitalized here. That's an error.

I think "15% to 50%" sounds right.


"what their preferred food source" Were you going for "their preferred food source" or "what their preferred food source is"?

"their head" "Their heads" is correct.

"Six legs with two segments all attaching between the third and fourth body segment. All legs twisted so that their ends to some degree face toward the anterior of the body, and the final pair of legs being roughly half the length of the first two pairs." Did you intend to merge these together? As it is, these two sentences don't look right.

"attaching to the front" "Attaches to the front".

"the arm being comprised of three mobile segments, the final segment of the manipulating arms are developed into a scoop shape."

The grammar doesn't work right here. One solution is: "with the arm[...]and the final segment of the manipulating arms being developed into a scoop shape."

"forming the": "forms".

"their decisive niches." What "their" references here is unclear. It's best to substitute "their" with "Little Bloisters".

I'll provide more feedback later.

"far more in number," "Numerous" would be more fluent.
"ark forests." That's a typo.
"jewel-eyed": apparently "Jewel-eyed Sauceback" was added to the wiki just today. Since it's such a new term, the word as it exists here should link to the "Jewel-Eyed Sauceback" page once it's approved.

I hope this doesn't cause confusion with Bubblewraptors or the various Raptor locations, like Raptor Peak.

I like the glossy artwork and the logical, well-developed description.

At least, in real life, there are many things called "shrews". In the words of Wikipedia, "True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to different families or orders." There's also almost universal description of Mesozoic mammals as "shrew-like", regardless of whether they're closely related to shrews. I hope we don't end up calling these "quails".

So far as I can guess, the black sand wouldn't affect temperatures so greatly it would be at risk of overheating, again assuming previous assumptions. I doubt that, even if the assumptions were slightly off, this fauna would get to a body temperature of 107.4 degrees. It would probably just be 80-90 F if the calculations were off, which shouldn't be deadly and in fact overlaps with savanna monitors' maintained active temperatures.

So, in short...yes, edit it. It wouldn't risk overheating unless it prefers cooler body temperatures than a savana monitor, so there would be no purpose in the stated cooling-off behaviors. It could still go to the shade if the UV levels are very high, I suppose, and it could go into the water sometimes just as a change of pace if it's smart enough to be curious about things.

Incidentally, there should also be a parenthesis after the "occasionally" for the Cleaner Borvermid.

EDIT: Fixed a very rare typo.

Here's the modified art.

Permission to do a mild retocon for the Saturntower:
"The roots do not branch unless they encounter water" seems very odd in its lack of exceptions. Permission to clarify: "roots appear not to branch unless they encounter water, but closer inspection reveals they do, in fact, branch: growing root diameter simply depends on the most direct paths to water available, and the roots accessing needed minerals are not as visible to the unaided eye."

I believe another member once stated to me, in the comments for a submission, that Fermi Desert isn't that hot, but it is very dry. However, that was last Week, I believe. I figure the beach would be cooler than the desert, if it has sea breezes. It likely has greater moisture levels than Fermi Desert, which should surely support more extensive tree cover and therefore shade.

Still...Fermi Desert, assuming the previous assumptions, would still be fairly cool.
On the other hand...Fermi Beach and Fermi Desert do have black sand. That might affect temperatures, at least on its feet.

I'm not sure sure if a 2 meter-long ectotherm with long legs would be particularly at risk of overheating.

It's hard to guess the climate of Sagan 4 now judging by its level of ice caps: Earth maps tend to distort the size of Antarctica, after all, and it's surprisingly hard to find a map formatted like Sagan 4's that also includes ice caps. It's also hard to figure out the exact latitude of the map relative to Earth's landmasses, but, assuming the same average climate as Earth (not guaranteed), Fermi Temperate is probably roughly between -40 to -50 degrees latitude, or 40-50 degrees south. The climate of Fermi Temperate now might be close to that of the city of Rio Gallegos in Argentina. If so, the hottest temperature would be 68 degrees. (Rio Gallegos was selected due to having being fairly cold, temperate, and semi-arid.)

Judging by a hard hat test (as a back-of-the-envelope calculation, of course) its black coloration would raise its interior temperature by about 9.1 degrees Fahrenheit, for an internal temperature of about 75.1 degrees Fahrenheit (~23.94 Celsius). For comparison,savanna monitors. (large reptiles: dinosaurs would be a better comparison, but we don't have as much data) die at about 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). It's possible that its tolerance of hot temperatures is lower than a savanna monitor's, of course, and if it just ran from a predator in the hottest day of summer it might be extra-hot. Still...the description says it's the young that tend to flee, and being smaller, they would probably cool down faster. There's also the fact its body wrinkles and big skin patch, which seems dewlap-shaped, would disperse heat.

It's been so long since I've worked on this that I don't recall if I did. Are you suggesting I add another nostril?

Falseglox (Patientia hagloxmimus)
Creator: Coolsteph
Ancestor: Lipped Sauceback
Habitat: Drake Boreal (4.6 km up) Drake Alpine
Size: 3 m long
Diet: Herbivore (Frigid Vesuvianites leaves, saplings and inner tissue, Vesuvianite Tree leaves, saplings and inner tissue, Towering Grovecrystal leaves, saplings and inner tissue, Supershrooms, Sapshrooms, Lurcreeper (most tissues) Xidhorchia (leaves, most tissues), Snow Puff (leaves, stems) Forest Venomerald, Windulb leaves and bulbs, Alpine Hedgelog leaves, twigs, shoots, and berries, Toxplage leaves and fruits, Sunstalks, Parasitic Floats, Hair Nimbuses, Alpine Cirruses, Larachoys, Larands)
Respiration: Active (Microlungs)
Thermoregulation: Endotherm (Feathers)
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Eggs)

Falsegloxes' size, torso shape, tail curvature, fuzziness and fuzz pattern, dark, solid-colored coat and fairly long, fleshy snout make them resemble a juvenile Haglox in poor lighting, hence the name. The difference becomes still closer when purplish juvenile Falsegloxes dust-bathe and coat their bodies in dark brown particles. In good lighting, however, it is clear Falsegloxes are quite a different sort of Sauceback, such as from its lack of tusks, fewer toes, eyestrils, sauce shapes, and color.

The species has thick, shaggy feathery coats, which become still longer as winter approaches. Its chest is deeper than its ancestor's, allowing greater capacity for its intestines, and therefore the ability to extract nutrition from even tough flora material. Its feathers are longer and shaggier around its neck and chest, exaggerating its slightly top-heavy proportions.

Falsegloxes will eat almost any kind of flora tissue, even if it's thorny, tough, acidic, bitter, odd-tasting, or mildly poisonous. The acidic taste of Alpine Hedglog fruits do not deter it at all, and it simply ignores any dermatitis from the rare snack of Alpine Cirruses, like a human eating fresh pineapple ignoring the sting of the fruit's enzymes. Oddly, it has no interest in eating Pagoda Crystals. Their appetites are so broad they will happily eat Supershrooms or Sapshrooms, although they rarely comprise a significant part of its diet because of its sheer size and those species not as common and easy to acquire as other flora. Falsegloxes eat twigs, shoots, and saplings of Alpine Hedgelogs, Frigid Vesuvianites, Vesuvanite trees, and Towering Grovecrystals. In the winter, Falsegloxes will even gnaw on the trunks of its chosen boreal tree species to access more tender layers inside. Much like Earth's deer, it can girdle trees in this way, seriously hindering their survival. In leaner years, the effects of Falsegloxes are obvious in the early spring: nearly all the trees growing in the upper altitudes of Drake Boreal are girdled, killed, or look chewed on up to a certain height, except for Pagoda Crystals. Were it not for their reduced appetites during the first two weeks of laying eggs, incubating young, and feeding their offspring, their appetites might be a bigger threat to Alpine Hedgelogs, a necessary shelter for their young.

==Reproduction & Maturation==

Though there is less food in the alpine regions, they nearly always (barring travel delays) lay their eggs and brood their young in Drake Alpine, beyond the reach of its predators. If there are weather delays, however, it will locate a hard-to-access rocky area with several Alpine Hedgelogs. They breed mainly in a somewhat lower, flatter part of Drake Alpine to the east and northeast, since it has Alpine Hedgelogs. They lay eggs and incubate their young among Alpine Hedgelog “hedges”. Falsegloxes lay 1-3 soft-shelled eggs at a time.

The young are more strongly purplish, and don’t stray far from the Alpine Hedgelogs. Similarly to Hagloxes, the larval stage is short, lasting about three weeks until it changes into its juvenile shape. The larvae hatch with a thick fuzzy coat and tend to look scruffy, their fuzz sticking out like Alpine Hedgelog twigs. Most of its pre-adult life stage is spent in the juvenile shape, which resembles, if imprecisely, smaller versions of the adults.

Similarly to a distantly-related lineage of saucebacks, waxfaces, it feeds its young “crop milk”. Unlike waxfaces, this substance is secreted from its esophagus, not a crop. They accumulate fairly large stores of fat in the months before the breeding season, allowing them to feed their young fatty crop milk.

As Falsegloxes mature, their feathers change to a dull purplish color, although some brighter coloration remains along the spine, and especially the upper neck and the top of the head. A curly tuft on its head, like the forelock of a horse, is almost universal in the species. Some individuals also keep “sideburns” of purple coloration below their ears for much of their lives.

==Anti-Predator Adaptations==

As a large herbivore, it is unable to limit itself only to habitats dominated by particular flora. Consequently, its dark grey coat is a compromise between its habitat’s frozen brown soil, dark bluish-green and very dark green Larachoys, dark purple Alpine Hedgelogs, and dark brown Alpine Cirruses.
Their thick feathers and the layer of fat along their "necks" (technically sensory proboscises) and chests offer a degree of protection against shallow injuries to these vulnerable locations.

They often migrate between Drake Alpine and the upper reaches of Drake Boreal, near the treeline. Some migrate into lower altitudes on an almost nightly basis. Although Drake Alpine has none of its predators at time of evolution, a herbivore of its size cannot sustain itself on only the small, hardy flora there or Alpine Hedgelog bushes.They are more skittish in Drake Boreal, and more inclined to live in groups there. During the winter, when there's even less food and harsher weather in Drake Alpine, they are more commonly found in the lower limits of their altitude range in Drake Boreal. Much like the bighorn sheep of Earth, they keep close to escape routes of steep, rocky terrain, which they can handle better than their major predators, Drakeshrog-Bannertail packs, and especially Drakeshrogs.

Up to a point, they become bolder in their foraging on colder days, when Drakeshrog-Bannertail packs are comparatively poorly-equipped, especially for its Bannertails. Yet, even deep in winter, they are not entirely safe: Falsejaw Sauceback packs are even more cold-adapted than they are.

Its thick, fuzzy footpads protect it from the rashes caused by Alpine Cirruses, which are a nuisance to various would-be pursuers, though the hooved Falsejaw Saucebacks are one notable exception.

Unlike the Double-Lipped Sauceback, another large herbivore in the area, it is largely nocturnal, which helps it avoid predators. It has only blurry greyscale vision. Since colors are much harder to distinguish at night, the fact its coat doesn’t really match the local flora isn’t as much of an issue. Though it stands out against the trunks of much-lighter Vesuvianite trees, most of the time they are big enough to cast a lot of shade, flattening the already-small color differences at night.

Please put "work in progress" in the title so it's clear at a glance this is a work-in-progress.
There's not an official rule in the Alpha timeline yet about what makes something allowable for a work-in-progress submission, but this still seems too small for a work-in-progress submission. The first incarnation of the Dockshrog submission, for example, was much more developed than this.

" revealing their body." Their bodies.
I'm not sure whether "insectivorous predators" is an ideal description, since insects don't exist in this setting, even if equivalents do.

It's good to have more bloodsuckers. I myself had a fragmentary "rainforest leech" idea for the Dixon-Darwin region, though it's not a high priority. Perhaps I can adapt the idea into a descendant of this species.

I like the art and pose.

"meant krotezurucks" That uses the past tense, which doesn't make sense here. They aren't extinct at time of writing.

Does this replace its ancestor?

I'm actually not sure how the thorns of thornbacks work, in relation to muscle, bone, and ligament attachment.

There are some grammar problems.

"the krotezuruck will lower their metabolism" "When the krotezuruck does emerge from its burrow in the spring, they begin feeding[...]" " The krotezuruck can also use their" "the krotezuruck retains their eggs " This is using both a representative singular and an unclear use of they. Consider the following:

"When the lion wakes up from its nap, they seek out antelope to hunt". That does not make sense, compared to: "When lions wake up from their naps, they seek out antelope to hunt" or "When the lion wakes up from its nap, it seeks out antelope to hunt".

It nourishes its young with "bacon goo" internally during their embryonic development, right? The description here makes it unclear whether it's post-birth or pre-birth nourishing. The ancestor description makes it clear, so just saying it "internally nourishes embryonic young" would be sufficient.

"[...]though sometimes individuals can live as much as two though this is rare." This sentence is too long and breathless.

It seems to have armor on its head. Is that thickned skin? Osteoderms?

Are the osteoderms connected to other bones or muscles?

I like the art and pose.

QUOTE (colddigger @ Oct 4 2021, 11:04 PM)

I'm surprised they would bother to differentiate between pirate and hypno waxfaces

Well, it wouldn't be hard.

"but consumes detritus also. Their whip-like tails are not used in locomotion but instead for stability."

Ending a sentence in "also" sounds very odd or conspicuously old-fashioned. I recommend "but also consumes detritus". While the whip-like tails being used for stability would make more sense for bigger organisms, for an organism at this size, the water is very thick. Can one really fall over in something as dense as honey? On the seafloor, it would be surrounded by particles like silt particles, which would give it something to push against, likely from all angles.

If you don't want to reduce the tail, you could say its ovaries stretch into its tails like the ovaries of sea spiders stretch into their legs, or that it holds onto its eggs using some of its tails.

"The species most of the time consumes microorganisms but also consumes detritus also."
The second "also" is superfluous and looks out of place.
Usually, microbes are listed as consumers and larger fauna are listed as filter-feeders, but this is a multicellular organism that is microscopic. I am uncertain what the custom would be for this.
If the whip-like tails are not used in locomotion, why would they persist? Do they serve some other function? At this scale, swimming in any moisture would be like swimming through honey. It may be useful to research especially tiny tardigrades to determine the plausibility of its movement.

They're surely ectotherms with passive skin-based respiration.

It is odd that it should not mind the taste of dung when it eats just eggs, Teacup Saucebacks, Eggslurping Sorites, and various berries and fruit. Pigs, snowy sheathbills, and to a lesser extent marabou storks are examples of feces-eating vertebrates, but they're extreme omnivores. These don't even scavenge. I think it would be good to note how it doesn't mind the taste of Dungshell Fraboo dung, and better yet, to provide some kind of reason for it.

Interesting...group tactics are less effective if a population dips due to competition. That might be a weak spot for other group hunters. Sauceback or "raptor sauceback" eggs are its favorite, right?

I see it eats Dungshell Fraboos. Does it not mind the taste of dung?

I like its coloration. This art style is pleasant.

Oh, that is very good lineart. It's like a coloring book.
For now, I plan a Sealkey descendant. There's plenty of opportunities to make them Barlowe-esque.

Flippskimas' ancestor is mentioned to have antifreeze proteins, and there's no mention it lost them. One could argue that's not enough, but, in that case, its ancestor, the Scaled Diveskunik, should also be listed.