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Seussgard (Odontuncus pilovenatus)
Creator: Jarlaxle
Ancestor: Praesugard
Habitat: Glicker Subtropical Woodland, Glicker Temperate Woodland, Glicker Subtropical Woodland, Glicker Temperate Woodland, East Glicker Subtropical Beach, West Glicker Subtropical Beach, Glicker Temperate Beach,
Size: 24cm Long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Omnivore (Gearrubaids, Polyblade,Jumpmite (juveniles), Nimblemites, Tropical Foliostrum, Snow's Rubyshroom, Rubyshroom, Goblin Jewel, Overnight Mycostrum, Frootbunch, Forest Purplestem, Dwarf Mycostrum, Crystal Peridot, Mycostrum Knightworm, Janusmite, Gobbobopod, Corpse Spardi, Aardmite (juveniles), Tidal Leafstar, Beach Chandelier (seeds), Gobbob, Frostrop,Violet Knightworm)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Mesotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, live birth)

Split from its ancestor to spread to South Glicker, the Seussgard became a known bug killer. Leaps like a grasshopper, and lands like a cat, nothing has stopped its lucky run yet.



Respiration:
it wasn't always the case, when the oxygen dropped it could barely make haste, a cursorial lifestyle can be pretty hard, when evading death makes for an out-of-breath 'gard. Smaller it shrunk, except for its lungs, taking the space of half its tumm'. The muscular ring pulling together four lungs for a hug, needed to give them more of a tug, so the muscular ring moved further back, expanding how much air they can pack. Once the muscular ring reached a pair of ribs at its center, by pulling on them it could breathe so much better. as the rib pair grew wider into transversal plates, it could breathe in air at increasing rates. stretching its lungs along half of its body, it could now breath while it eats without any worry.

Balance:
But wary it was, as the leap would prolong, so many chances for things to go wrong, the more modest its size the further its jump, so much can happen to cause it to slump, the smaller it got the bigger the hills, a tiny mistake can make it topple and reel. To know where it's going even with its eyes shut, three vestibular chambers extend from its gut. Extending two chambers along transversal plates, it would never find out its orientation too late. The vestigial toe of its tail that now grows in its body now supported a chamber that won't let it be sloppy.
Inside every chamber was a little bouquet, in a spongy material that won't let it stray. three tubes with three plates like a stem and a flower, containing a fluid with ionized power. As it flows up the tube and along the plate's rim, it triggers the nerves in the segments they skim. when the body moves in any direction, the fluid will move in opposing reactions, accelerate forward and it will flow all the way back, squeezing from segment to segment through little cracks. the tubes feel inertia in every direction, and plates always know one's orientation, forwards, sideways, and the speeds of one's fall, yaw, pitch, or the rate of one's roll. Even in sleep, two chambers are ready, taking turns to replenish, so it can always walk steady.
Like the inner ears of species from another time and place, they could always find where it's going in space, and with three points around the center mass, there was never an obstacle they couldn't bypass. Lacking a tail would not hold it back, instead making use of its flexible neck. Now swaying and rolling mid-air like an acrobatic cheat, it's positioned to leap the moment it lands on its feet.

thermoregulation:
All that breathing and running can take quite a toll, so it warmed up its muscles to keep up with its role. Shivering muscles from the hump of its back, it would warm up and run to not be a snack. But with a diminutive size, the heat was soon lost, and maintaining it came at a difficult cost. Coming out of the glands in its skin to not let it suffer, grew strands of hairs with a keratin cover. Protecting muscles and arteries from the quick loss of heat it can't spare, it covered its back with a fluffy sheet made of hair. but not yet adapted to always be warm, it had to adapt to its mesotherm form. To not lose more than it can eat, sometimes it needed to not overheat, so it waggled the toes that aren't on its feet, making use of their new leather sheets, by flapping a membrane between the toe and the rump, it would quickly cool off without needing to slump.

Reproduction:
But it wasn't for heat that the toe flaps grew, rather to show off the color of blue, a runaway sexual display of cyan, determining who will get to have young. Lekking together when they all are in heat, the males will show off their flaps to compete, flapping them on as they leap high, and they'll find out who catches the female's eye. The females respond with small flaps of green, the message the same as an approving grin. Making sure they get a cloacal kiss, they stretch their necks backward so they don't miss. The female will give birth to live young, almost adult in shape to not misplace a lung. emerging first with a head and a limb, avoiding fates that can be quite grim, flapless & bald they'll shiver from the cold, and they'll follow the green of her flaps until they are a year old.



Diet:
The smaller it got, the more mixed its meal, and getting the occasional critter became a big deal. From running and hiding to hunting a snack, its defense became its primary mode of attack. Even with flora, it became kind of picky, traveling distances and taking meals that are tricky.
To adapt to its diet it developed dentition, and its teeth have evolved into tools of precision. Cutting off chunks with rows of incisors, which the premolars dice into manageable sizes. The molars smash flora into a pulp and tenderize meats that are harder to gulp. A more complex role is played by the hooks, passing the food between the roof and floor nooks. Delivering pieces to where they need to go, it won't need a free tongue when it has a hook row. Needing no canines to tear off flesh pieces, it uses the mandibles to grab what it pleases.
Last but not least in its change of nutrition, came one that required a stomach partition. Part of its stomach sectioned into a liver, as Vinegob descendants became part of its dinner.

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Mar 17 2023, 03:39 PM

This is really fantastic, I always enjoy coming across your more poetic or artistically written submissions.

A couple things that I noticed while partially reading through, respiration in your internal organ diagram seems to be written wrong.

At the point where the word tumm exists I would think that perhaps an apostrophe should be placed at the end, although I personally have not run into this word standalone I do recognize it's relationship to the word tummy.

In the section about balance the phrase they skim appears twice at the end of a sentence.

In thermal regulation the word diminutive seems to be spelled wrong slightly.

In diet I'm wondering if you wanted to say from running to hiding to hunting a snack, rather than from running to hide to hunting a snack.

Love the teeth diagram.

This post has been edited by colddigger: Mar 17 2023, 08:22 AM

Thanks, Fixed

It seems kind of abrupt for hair, honestly. Many endothermic groups on Earth didn't even get hair until later. It's also a bit strange in this case that it'd only occur on some of the skin, rather than insulating all of it.

All of those issues, for the record, *could* be amended by making them an exaptation. Perhaps try to think of something else the hair could do before being used purely for insulation. I did bring up urticating hairs, but I don't see that as being a first use for hair.

Love the rhymes, by the way. I'm almost a bit saddened having to critique the organism itself, knowing how long it can take myself to come up with multiple good rhymes in a row.

Hair is fantastic for extending the sense of touch beyond the surface of the body.

And cleanliness can be a deciding factor for keeping fur off an area.

This post has been edited by colddigger: Mar 18 2023, 11:41 AM

This is definitely my favourite Sagan organism description. Nearly driving me to make my own rhyme-filled inscription.

QUOTE (Beans @ May 13 2023, 12:48 AM)

This is definitely my favourite Sagan organism description. Nearly driving me to make my own rhyme-filled inscription.

Do it

I forgot to address this:

QUOTE (Cube67 @ Mar 18 2023, 03:05 AM)

It seems kind of abrupt for hair, honestly. Many endothermic groups on Earth didn't even get hair until later. It's also a bit strange in this case that it'd only occur on some of the skin, rather than insulating all of it. All of those issues, for the record, *could* be amended by making them an exaptation.

We all know how eye cups first evolved as egg holders, fins started first as a way to mark territory in rocks, bat patagium started as a grooming method by generating a nice flow of air to fan on each other during hot days, and before saving energy the first use of bipedalism was dinosaur river dancing...Except none of those things happened:

Each of those had an immediate positive reinforcement, which allowed the process to take root without the need for an Exaptation. Exaptation dominates the visible landscape not because they are more common but because they are more visible - they engage our minds, they are the plot twists of nature and are thus more memorable and shape our ideas of evolution. But they are not the rule, nor could they be - as each exaptation represents its own evolutionary process that would then need its own exaptation.

Likewise, our own hairs are likely candidate for a direct process. There is the whisker first theory, which is a possible exaptation, but afaik there haven't been many gains in support for it.

I am placing it in select locations specifically because it is a new development, using location rather than density as the transitional variable, having it grow exclusively where extensive heat loss is likely.

Edit: I recently found a very good illustration of what the fur might look like if it was done in a highly realistic style, taken from Andy Frazer's Dragons of the Dark Woods


Though much like most of Sagan, the Seussgard isn't intended to be photorealistic, nor do I have the skills to make that, but that does give you some idea of the early fur dispersal and what's the partial cover represents

This post has been edited by Jarlaxle: Jun 11 2023, 01:08 AM