
Bunvil (Vesicapodus diaboli)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Fangbunny
Habitat: Krakow Tropical Beach, Hydro Tropical Beach, Mancerx Riparian
Size: 10 cm long
Support: Soft-Bodied (Muscular Hydrostat)
Diet: Adult: Carnivore (
Bundom,
Spinybun,
Tootsy Nibbler,
Honorable Crownworm,
Dragnt Spardyvern (Juveniles), Rainbun, Corpse Spardi, Spardiflies, Warmbuns, Rainbun, Toothgrip Bristlebunny, Bouffant Knightworm, Knightworm, Shed Knightworm, Rolyknights, Darwinian Crestgills, Ferrofilament); Larva: Filter-feeder
Respiration: Semi-Active (Pressure swing membrane)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Male and Female, Broadcast-Spawning in Water, Eggs)
The Bunvil has split from its ancestor, nearly doubling in size with the aid of respiratory adaptation, it has evolved to make the most out of the opportunities around it and to weather the risks of a small opportunistic carnivore with its extreme regenerative abilities.
Its eyes have evolved into protected pinhole eyes and have moved forward into the base of the counter arms, allowing them to move and wiggle around, while neuron clusters with short-term memory behind the eyes layer multiple blurry images from slightly different angles to synthesize high-contrast mental images, while a similar cluster at the base of the tail uses multiple smell measurements to draw a vector to the source of the smell. Having its critical sensory input coming from opposing ends, it has so far resisted cephalization, but learned associations are retained in small neuron clusters along the sides of the body. This leads to a reflexive flight response, as sometimes the back legs can start running in response to a negative association before the front legs, so when pushed forward the front limbs will immediately start running, assuming the back limbs are already doing so.
==regeneration: ==
When injured, it will grow a wound epidermis, using the overabundance of macrophages to break down dead cells and feed a blastema mass, bringing the cells into a juvenile stem state from which the tissues and organs will regrow. It can regrow its tail, limbs, fang segments, and entire body segments, as long as there's enough of it left to sustain and provide for regenerative growth. The regeneration is linked to the endocrine system's pain response. This sometimes leads to fatal chronic pain condition that causes the last segment to continuously grow additional segments as if they were the end of amputation. Individuals suffering from this will continue until they can't eat fast enough to sustain their growth and die of malnutrition. When this condition strikes younger individuals, the limited gap between the many segments will restrict healthy gonad development. Older members afflicted by the condition sometimes do manage to spawn before they die, but will lose out on mating if they lack a tail with which to detect pheromones.
==Respiration:==

(Caption: Breathing membrane closeup.)
Having lived through the nitrogen crash, its ancestor's respiration evolved to maintain a higher rate of oxygen exposure while the planetary nitrogen levels recovered. Covering the respiratory membrane hanging on its underbelly, remnants of its ancestral slug-foot, are small pores, lined with tiny hairs made out of long tightly packed baits, used to capture dirt dust, and pathogens, which are regularly cleaned by mucus produced by glans lining the top of the membrane. As the air travels into the pore, it will pass by side chambers lined with groups of specialized bait cells that intersect and bind their long baits into a porous spiral that acts as a zeolite-like nitrogen bed. These chambers work in pairs, as one will be capturing nitrogen from the air passage within the pore while the other releases previously captured nitrogen externally, turning the air pore into a hydrostatic pressure swing, increasing the oxygen concentration in the alveoli, a bulbous cauliflower-like structure with very thin walls, facilitating oxygen exchange with a closed circulatory system extending down from the heart of each segment. Eventually, the nitrogen beds lose their structural flexibility and ability and get stuck with nitrogen, getting digested internally as dead cells and coming out as nitrogen-rich dung.
==Reproduction:==
It otherwise lives much like its ancestor, hatching as a larva in the water until it is ready to emerge to land, killing prey with the fangs of its counter arms and seeking the pheromones of its kind to gather and spawn along bodies of water.
This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Feb 15 2023, 04:07 PM