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QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Nov 1 2021, 08:20 PM)

Well, there are probably flora on the beach that need pollinators. Shrogs spread basically everything that had a fruit.

Yes, but I was asking how Xenobees managed to make the journey across the ocean to get there, and especially prior to Seashrogs showing up. I don't believe they could have fed on floating flowers or flowers on driftwood. I don't think they existed at the time. Since this is a bloodsucking mucivore that could feed on Shrogs or Shrog-spread fauna for the journey, I can make this the first of the Xenobees on Fermi if Xenobees did not already get there. If they did get there beforehand, I can write the description accordingly, but the Xenobees details on the ecosystem would have to be changed. If neither of those options can work, I can perhaps modify it so their larvae live in Gourjorns and either got spread from mainland Gourjorn stem-buds floating across the sea or spread in Seashrog stores.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Nov 1 2021, 09:15 PM)

I think I made this back when I confused the rear ends for the front end of Xenobees, as I did for the Xenobee. I justified that after the fact in a nearly-complete description I made today. They're mating claspers that can be mistaken for fangs. Its actual mouth is in its tail-like proboscis, of course.

It's gonna bother me forever if I don't ask, so...when you thought the mouth was the cloaca and the cloaca was the mouth...

...what did you think the tongue that many wingworms are depicted with was?

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Nov 2 2021, 01:42 AM)

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Nov 1 2021, 09:15 PM) I think I made this back when I confused the rear ends for the front end of Xenobees, as I did for the Xenobee. I justified that after the fact in a nearly-complete description I made today. They're mating claspers that can be mistaken for fangs. Its actual mouth is in its tail-like proboscis, of course. It's gonna bother me forever if I don't ask, so...when you thought the mouth was the cloaca and the cloaca was the mouth... ...what did you think the tongue that many wingworms are depicted with was?

Probably male reproductive organs. Like Greater Lahns', although those arrived much later. I was probably shocked by that, but they're alien bugs, so perhaps it would have been considered more acceptable. You'll notice that neither the Xenobee nor Woolly Xenobee descriptions, or even the Bumbleworm description, say "It has a very long tongue", but the former two do give attention to their reproductive systems.

So, anyway...does anyone know how the Xenobees got to Fermi as a global genus group, or do I need to write the Spooky Xenobee description assuming it's the first of its kind to get there? Any feedback on the bat Dundis or getting that Sealkey descendant to a plausible habitat?

Coincidentally, a few months ago a species that got tongues on the wrong end out of misinterpretation was retconned to have been using hemipenes as tongues, turning it cursed out of necessity. If you'd drawn a tongue on the wrong end, would you have done the same retcon or just redraw?

I think it's safe to assume xenobees have gotten to Fermi already. They're small and they can fly, they've probably gotten tossed over by wind on many occasions.

Well, I made that sketch many years ago. I don't know what I'd do then relative to what I would do now.

Warning: Inaccurate toes from 2014.


I plan to use these sketches from years ago to create polar-adapted descendants for various small Fermi thornbacks or adapt them to live in the colder latitudes of Fermi Temperate Beach. However, I apparently made two of them...generic, or intended to split from ancestors which are now extinct. Now, I can't decide which species should be their ancestors.

Upper Left:
Possibly intended as a Billdeka/Whiskerback hybrid, but since they're in different genuses, it probably wouldn't work. I could make it a Billdeka descendant that evolved similar structures to Whiskerbacks, or erase the back-whiskers. I could also erase the cheek patches or just make them spots to make them Whiskerback descendants. The Zzuzzu (extinct Articulated Thornback descendant) had similar thin spines which looked like hairs in the art, possibly reinforcing the potential of this feature to emerge in the lineage.

Lower left:
Earlier today, I wrote it as a Cryorasher descendant, but, looking closer, making it a polar-adapted Shortfaced Thornback descendant might be more parsimonious. After all, they both have long tails retained into adulthood.

Right:
Perhaps a Shortfaced Thornback or Voracious Anklebiter Thornback? I intended it to climb large flora, hence it being perched on thick spines.

Here is my descendant of the Treedundi that does a controlled fall or glide, known as the Glideabovi. The artwork for it is done but im still working on its description and lifestyle. Have had this guy planned since gen 163 but im only now getting it created.

This post has been edited by OviraptorFan: Nov 13 2021, 02:54 PM

From Page 4:


With the Glideabovi submitted, it now makes it easier to design this other winged Dundi. However, it's still difficult to figure out what its lifestyle should be.

Does anyone have any ideas on the most plausible direction? Note that the face isn't finalized, and I initially forgot to add the spurs.

Lifestyle Option 1:
Aye aye-like. Nibbles or claws open decaying bark and pokes its forefingers in, rummaging for tiny prey. Arboreal; glides.

Lifestyle Option 2:
Lives in very dark, dense areas/nocturnal and well-camouflaged. Suspends itself from thick branches using its lengthy, claw-like hands, and captures approaching prey in its talon-like hind legs. Winglike membranes are used to disguise its shape (or perhaps glide).

Lifestyle Option 3:
It fishes at the edge of the water, using its twiglike but surprisingly durable fingers as fishing hooks. Its arm membranes allow it to leap (majestically) out into the water, away from predators, and assist it in swimming away from would-be predators. (Note: bats can swim.)

Lifestyle Option 4:
Probes small tunnels in the ground, spearing anything it finds with its fingers. Membranes are blankets it uses over its body to conserve heat while sleeping? Walks three-legged while carrying its young?

Add-on to any:
It requires sturdy fingers with long claws to slash at predators, as it's a major defense.

A black flora,

I intend on really trying to elaborate on the physiology of black flora with this.

I wonder what it will descend from? Obsidoaks seem the closest match, but the trunk is brown and the trunk texturing is very different. Chameleon Obsidishanks match the color of the leaves a little more, but look even more different.
Of course, it's possible it changes trunk color and texturing over time, as oaks do, or perhaps some kind of encrusting organism (e.g., lichen-like, moss-like, or algae-like) grows so thickly as to make it brown, rather than grey or black.
I wonder if those leaf shapes show a leaf with and without its ribbing, or shows two different leaf shapes depending on age and/or sunlight exposure?

As far as I can tell there aren't any black flora with bark, they all have living or nearly living surfaces all across their trunks, which is why they're black. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but it leaves them susceptible to desiccation, borers, and herbivores in general.
I'm giving this bark as a response to desiccation.

The vascular system

...designing a sapworm that is transitioning to be a tick-like pest to saucebacks.


someone on the discord said I should first start with Crystal Flora sapworm, and THEN have it specialize into saucebacks.

HethrR Jarrod,

That's very fragmentary, even for a work-in-progress. If you want early feedback, it would help to provide more details. Try following the template. What its ancestor? What is its diet? A diet of purely blood poses the risk of nutritional deficiencies. How does it deal with that? The most intuitive physiologic bases would be blood-feeding arthropods, but you could also take cues from vampire bats.

Here's a general outline for a Foundation group I'm working on for gen 149:

Yanisflora

Creator: MNIDJM
AncestorX: [[Vandriswoop]]<br>[[Ninjaswoop]]<br>[[Yenaptak]]<br>[[Yumerhing]]<br>[[Yotwis]]<br>[[Retigroenx]]<br>[[Pioneer Retigroenx]]<br>[[Potallotus]]<br>[[Lacrimuck]]<br>[[Thawgrass]]<br>[[Nibulb Thawgrass]]<br>[[Yellowgrass]]<br>[[Hairyllo]]<br>[[Gupongrass]]<br>[[Crownrunner]]
Habitat: Sagan 4 Global
Size: 2 - 50 cm
Support:
Diet: Photosynthesis
Thermoregulation: Ectothermic
Reproduction: Asexual, Detaching Cells, Regenerating; Asexual, Budding:

Most yanis are nominally terrestrial, growing within porous soil and water puddles. When the bulbs find suitable soil to grow in, they will begin growing until they reaches a hard surface which cannot be displaced, like a rock or gravel. When this happens, the support rods of the areal parts will break, and begin to transform into a kite-like structure, which will then fully separate from the bulb. This will allow them to be caught in the wind and spread, until it finds soil that can support them.

Yanis can be found in all viable biome of Barlowe and Dixon, with some species spreading as far south as Jaydoh and as far west as Trueteal. Their spread has also allowed the spread of some fauna that feed on them:

* The [[Migrating Capispine|migrating capispine]] dispersed out of the Ittiz Salt Bog back up the Ittiz riverway, out across the Nergali Polar Beach, and even out into the Nergali Polar Coast, making some small inroads into Maineiac Polar Beach.

* The [[Vandriswoop Shellworm|vandriswoop shellworm]] has also followed the diversifying species up the Ittiz waterway, as well as south, managing to make their way to the Ovi waterway, as well as the deserts, high deserts, and temperate beaches of southern Barlowe.

=Highlighted Species=

==Family Pillunaneae - "Swoops"==

* [[Vandriswoop]]
* [[Ninjaswoop]]
* [[Yenaptak]]
* [[Yumerhing]]
* [[Yotwis]]
* [[Retigroenx]]
* [[Pioneer Retigroenx]]
* [[Potallotus]]
* [[Lacrimuck]]

==Family Thawflora - "Thawgrasses"==

* [[Thawgrass]]
* [[Nibulb Thawgrass]]

==Family Agrostomimus- "Yellowgrasses"==

* [[Yellowgrass]]
* [[Hairyllo]]
* [[Gupongrass]]
* [[Crownrunner]

Sapbeak

If a quail raptor is like a quail, the Sapbeak is more like a roadrunner, or a woodpecker. It has a reduced number of teeth, and reduced number of eyestrils. The Sapbeak will jab its proboscis-front into the ground, not worrying about concussion if it hits a hard surface. Its brain is protected by its back plates. If it’s lucky, it will find what it was looking for: dinner.
The Sapbeak has become specialized at a specific diet of small burrowing creatures that like to feed off of the flora. Its favorite food is the sapworm. It will find a tree where a mother sapworm has laid its eggs just underneath the surface, and peck at it constantly to make an opening big enough to reach inside with its teeth.
Like the quail raptor it also bears a pair of small spikes which allow it to hold onto the trunk of the flora while it is pecking at it.
It shows some signs of intelligence, leaving some of the sapworm larvae to survive to become future meals. It also remembers exactly where it found the nest.
It is not as communal as its ancestor, preferring to nest separately as pairs. It will find a depression in the base of a tree that it likes, and cover the entrance with grasses and debris in order to form a nest.