I noticed the other submissions had added respiration details, so I added some myself.
After the contest, it might be fun to figure out the evolution of them all, and how closely related each is to the other. Perhaps it could include Oofle's membership submission, too.

Most Srugeing descendants now provide thermoregulation and respiration details. (That's a new requirement for submissions now, for the most part.) Once those are added, though, this should be complete.

That's worth specifying in the description itself, since it's unclear. I am unsure whether these would understand what "mean" or "malicious" are, too, so describing specific behaviors would help.

Why did it lose its spikes? It does have predators, as the "history of predation" line says. If anything, its smaller size would make it more appealing as prey, and therefore give it greater need for spikes. Do its predators attack only areas without spikes? It also seems odd it would lose so much of its tail spikes, since smacking foes with spiked tails would likely be effective as defense, especially if it lacks spears. (Spears aren't mentioned, but "fine tools" are.)

If they're small enough to quickly escape into other organisms' burrows, rotten logs or up into the trees, I suppose standing and defending themselves wouldn't be necessary, but that's not stated.

", which is based primarily on how good they are at tricking one another."
All the other things are pretty plausible: this fauna collects New Caledonian crows, raccoons, foxes, and scrub jay traits together. However, having a social hierarchy based on tricking each other is odd, and needs more explanation. To rise in rank, wouldn't they have to be observed by others? Wouldn't others have to remember being tricked? If they were tricked, wouldn't they trust the 'jester' less and be more aggressive or likely to distrust it in the future?

Is "insectivore" really allowed as a dietary term when there are technically no insects on Sagan 4? Wouldn't Omnivore ([prey species], Xenobee honey, fruits of the following: [fruit species]" work? Strictly speaking, "fruits of the following" has never been used before, but it's all fruits in sequence, so saying "[species] fruit, [species] fruit" would get repetitive.

Disgustedorite brought the insect issue upa while ago, in fact.

"Fruitng Grovecrystal" There's a typo: it should be "fruiting".

It's interesting to see all the colors of the latest plents.

P.S. Did you make this just so there would be a "giant blue anteater" fauna?

Well, the original Tonboswarmer doesn't rest on the surface of the water with pontoon-wings, so putting it in "Ratis" is...odd. I'm sure that, in real-life, there are members of genuses which don't match what the name of the genus means, but it is strange. "Volucris" would fit them all, but it's an awfully nonspecific name for an organism made so late in Sagan 4's history, when it makes more sense to give to one of the first few flying organisms.

"however, the tonbodivers do not fair" That's a typo: it should be "fare".

"Cimex" means "bug", yes, but also "bedbug". It would make sense if it's a "bug" that resembles a bedbug, but this looks more like a dragonfly than a bedbug. "Volucris" refers to birds, but also other flying creatures. "Volucrisratis" could mean "pontoon flying-creature". The short name "Ratis" would also work, too. Ratites (wingless birds like ostritches and emus) derive the name from the same word, but don't go by the same genus name. The genus name Ratis for a hydrozoan has since been replaced by the name Porpita.

These still exist in polar habitats. Do they exist in the lower latitudes of those habitats? Do they migrate? Do they have short lifespans in the polar habitats, and the population overwinters as eggs?

I suggest the pseudo-classical "Pontoonus" or "Ratis". The latter is a Latin word that means "pontoon bridge", as well as "raft", "boat", and "ship". (The Greeks used pontoons, but as bridges, not boats. Romans also used pontoon bridges.)

I'm not sure if metamorphosis should be part of the reproduction line.

I like the color scheme, pose and angle.

"Mannar" should be "manner".

"manor" should be "manner".

I don't have the time at the moment to check the plausibility of the rigid chitin exoskeletal structure, although, certainly, some elaboration on support for gilltails was long due.

I like the inclusion of the female coloring.

I did back up some Specevo-era crucial files, and I might have backed them up via the Internet Archive, too. I probably don't have pre-Specevo forum files, though. I'm not sure whether Internet Archive would have backups of the oldest, since-made-Tapatalk files.

I do have an old computer that would have overlapped with that era, and a backup drive that surely has files from that era. I don't know whether it has those specific forum files, though.

Are these nocturnal or diurnal? That might help in niche partitioning with Sappy Pinknoses' noted pollinator, an unremarkable species of xenobee called Xenoapis warioii.

the sappy pinknose ("the" should be capitalized)

Srugeings don't have bones, so I guess they would have cartilage like sharks.

There's not a official standardized format for "this organism spreads one or other organisms to other habitats", but in some other submissions, I believe there's a list of organisms spread and where at the bottom.

"increase coloration" should be "increased coloration".

"to much energy" should be "too much energy"

"have been know" Why speak from a position of passivity and uncertainty when one can presume absolute knowledge on these organisms?
"the male[...]their". "his" is appropriate for the grammar.

Shrogs don't sweat, do they? If so, they might dissipate heat by panting or through their nasal passages, like dogs. If these live someplace that's always cool, and possibly don't seriously heat themselves up by sustained and strenuous physical activity, then the usefulness of a short snout for cooling down would be reduced. Perhaps, if it lives in one the many suggested "grand canyons", the perpetual shade would give it cooler than expected temperatures in warmer climates. Alternatively, you could have it dissipate heat in other ways, reducing the usefulness of the mouth's surface or nasal passages.

You could say it has a lengthened pharyngeal region, which conditions the air instead of the nasal passages. (I used speculation on humans as a basis.)

Are you giving it a short head and then explaining how it can survive, or giving it a short head, finding a compelling reason for it to gain one, and then explaining how it survives within that niche? Understanding the "reason" for its very short face could help. Is it "degeneration" from lack of need or adaptation to something that encourages a very short snout?

If its snout is shorter because it eats soft foods or cooked foods (perhaps by stealing from Taserflames, benefiting from cooked corpses, or "cooking" on the warm embers of their fire-pits), then you could use information from hypotheses on humans' shorter snouts relative to the closest living relatives. If its feeding style depends on placing its face very close to its foodstuff, you could use walrus or marine iguana skulls as a basis.

"water only enter" should be "water only enters".
"hydrodynamicification" isn't a word. Did you mean "streamlining" or "speed adaptations"?

I figure such a huge organism would have a bigger description. Are these, like whales, resistant to cancer? Since it's so enormous, and has better ways of obtaining oxygen, it might be able to go into somewhat deep waters. What's the depth range of this? Since it exists in both the twilight and sunlight zones, this is especially worthwhile. Some fish barely exist in the upper reaches of the twilight zone, while others exist in the lowest reaches of the sunlight zone and part of the twilight zone, and other regularly migrate between the two depths.

On a more trivial note, is it tasty? I'm thinking of whether it has tasty blubber.

Long snouts provide room for filtering, moistening, and warming incoming air, and can cool outgoing air to reduce heat loss. If it has a really, really coiled inner conchae (assuming shrogs even have conchae...I don't think conchae are ever explicitly mentioned on Sagan 4) that could compensate somewhat for a shorter snout in cold or dry climates. It might have trouble grabbing food with its mouth, although that wouldn't matter if it uses its paws to push food into its mouth or can effectively suck food into its mouth (e.g., like some animals suck up clams). This one's face is loosely walrus-like, so it could help to research walruses. Spectacled bears and short-faced bears also have pretty short snouts.

This seems to be a work in progress, so it should be marked as such.

When you say it eats various ferines...can you specify? Since they're trees, they probably can't be eaten in their entirety, or eaten almost in their entirety, without special adaptations for eating wood. I figure the parts that could be eaten without special adaptations, especially considering they can cook it, would be the berries, flowers, flower buds, leaf buds, possibly shoots, and cambium. (except sleeve ferines, which is probably high in heavy metals) Since that's a long list, you could say "most low-cellulsoe parts of".

Would they avoid eating Scarlethorns?

" never actually needed to smell with its tongue in the first place" That seems harsh. Some animals do have sensory redundancy. Butterflies have photoreceptors on their rear ends, which helps with aligning while mating, and catfish have taste buds on their whole bodies. Having smelling receptors on the tongue could have some utility.

These probably massively increase fire incidences in their habitats. How would that affect local flora and fauna distributions? I figure Greater Lahns might burn, and perhaps Lahnworms. Fauna that aren't fast enough to flee, or have keen enough senses to get a warning before it gets too severe, or are able to swim or climb up fire-resistant trees might be somewhat endangered by these. I wonder if accidental fires could spread across habitats...

It does seem strange they would eat almost exclusively things that are poisonous and hard to digest. Humans (the only other example of an animal that regularly cooks its food with fire) don't eat exclusively poisonous things. On a related note, Scarlethorns are also a poisonous fauna option in Drake Chaparral, and they don't look as if they would be fast. Unless, of course, their poison is so strong (or "deadly") cooking doesn't get rid of all of it.

EDIT: This gave me an idea, which I'll probably make next Generation. Do these things like the taste of lemon and chile peppers?

I did not intend for it to replace its ancestor. Though it overlaps with its ancestor in Drake Rocky, I figure Alpine Hedgelogs' specialization in high-altitude conditions and poorer reproductive ability where the Hopping Ketter exists would allow them to coexist.

Good catch, MNIDJM.

Oofle, you could similarly internalize the lung, say it has a sufficient layer of subcutaneous fat streamlining it to make the bump hard to see from most lights, or simply add a bit of shading suggesting the bump.

It does not replace its ancestor. I designed it to have a different diet.

There's a space after "Thorny Toadtuga" in the diet list.

Odd..."lesser Argusraptor" really is capitalized that way on the wiki page for the Argusraptor Complex. It was the terrible Argusraptor that had odd capitalization. I'm unsure what the protocol is for named subspecies.

"Smaller prey like Toadtuga at first," It seems you forgot to add something like "They will hunt" to the beginning.

"their spike" doesn't each cheek pouch have a single spike each? Wouldn't "spikes", plural, be appropriate? Would the spike getting in the way when moving through narrow areas so significantly affect Valley Constrictors' survival and reproduction as to be lost entirely? Then again, it's just a spike, not a complex internal structure.

"To maximize genetic diversity" suggests they consciously understand genetic diversity, which is unlikely. I suggest, "they are all instinctively driven to breed in this valley, and the mixing of the populations' genetics there ensures genetic diversity."

"M and females" Either a male named M is keeping all the females to himself, or this is a typo.

Please capitalize the name of your submission, its habitats, and its ancestor. The extra spaces in the upper part of the template, which separate the lines, should be removed, as is customary. It would help to make a submission formatting checklist, and go down the checklist to ensure you don't miss anything.

Some members capitalize organism names, and others do not. What's important is that the naming scheme stays consistent within the submission itself. As it is, "Cryobowler srugeing" is not a correct formatting: "srugeing" should be capitalized if "Cryobowler" is capitalized.

The periods in the diet should be replaced by commas.

"cryobowl, this" The comma should be a period.

"well. Such" The grammar needs to be cleaned up. I suggest replacing "such" with: "more specifically, they go through a small growth spurt, the upper, dorsal and abdominal fins atrophy while the lower tailfin lengthens (for aerodynamics) and the gonads mature."

It should help to enter your submission into text processors and run-on sentence detectors online, and to speak your submission out loud. Speaking it out loud will help point out comma errors.

Remarkable: these may be the first to eat the new Minifee genus group.
Laying eggs directly into the sea would require adaptations for tolerating salinity. I'm not sure if it's possible to directly transition from its previous reproduction habits to laying directly into the sea, since it's a big change in salinity.
"in the bonegroves" should be "on the bonegroves", unless there are hollows within the bonegroves.
"progressively large": Did you mean "progressively larger"?
The sentences are breathless. Most of the sentences need to be split with commas.
"their outer grasping" is a possessive error: you should use "its" or "their" and the plural of "finger".