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You actually don't need to list the species for the Scavenger part, JSYK

Wow
That's a lot of teeth

Why are the eyes shiny? (And why so many? By my calculations this has at least 22 teeth)

If they have small, simple teeth, it should be possible to pack in so much. It could be like a dolphin and swallow food whole, without chewing. Or it could be like a giant armadillo, which feeds on soft-bodied things that need little chewing.

In real life, wood is generally not as dense as bone. this discussionThis discussion states that a human skeleton made of a particularly strong (that is, hard) kind of wood, black ironwood, would only be 70% as strong as a normal human skeleton.

Orphan Scimitars mostly eat small plents, with wooden bones that would likely snap like twigs or small sticks under its jaws, and some small "normal-bone" organisms. If it has little need for chewing, it wouldn't need complex teeth, and so could have small, simple ones, and so could have a lot. I'm not sure whether small rodent-like plents are really equivalent to the bugs giant armadillos eat, though, and surely the larger ones would have bones tougher than the fish and squids dolphins swallow whole.

I just realized...there are a lot of organisms that eat plents, but how many can actually digest wood? Wood is very hard to digest. Do they eat around the bones? Do they spit up bone fragments? Can they handle the occasional nodent twig-like bone but not, say, dualtrunk leg-bones?

Exactly which organisms should remain in its diet may be up to further calculations, but I'm not sure how it would handle Gulperskuniks, which are well-armored even if it's just cellulose.

There are various formatting errors. I'll have to go over those later.

QUOTE (TheBigDeepCheatsy @ Nov 15 2021, 07:12 AM)

You actually don't need to list the species for the Scavenger part, JSYK

Fixed

QUOTE (colddigger @ Nov 15 2021, 07:45 AM)

Wow That's a lot of teeth

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Nov 15 2021, 05:37 PM)

Why are the eyes shiny? (And why so many? By my calculations this has at least 22 teeth)

Updated to address the question:
"To find the scent of carcasses from far away, their eyestrils have become more numerous, and the additional teeth sockets in the oral ring allow them to consistently have new teeth growing while their outgrown teeth get worn down from biting into bone and armor. To protect their eyestrils from blood sand and dust, they are lined up with a type of fatty tear duct, releasing soapy bubbles that clean them out. "

This post has been edited by Papainmanis: Nov 15 2021, 10:38 AM

I don't actually see anything wrong with the number of teeth, I was just surprised

Knowing that nostrils and teeth are tied together in development, is it even possible for the teeth to work like that without affecting the nostrils, too?

Like if a sauceback can even regrow teeth or have baby teeth and adult teeth, without disrupting the nostril?

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Nov 15 2021, 05:37 PM)

By my calculations this has at least 22 teeth)

24



The way I imagine it, the oral line contiues to grow after the basis for the skull-ring is etablished, leading to an increasing density with one tooth moving infront of the other in a wave like pattern.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Nov 15 2021, 07:00 PM)

Knowing that nostrils and teeth are tied together in development, is it even possible for the teeth to work like that without affecting the nostrils, too?

Seems so, unless you overrule established cannon, in quite a few saucebacks you have a seperation of teeth and nostril/eye location, suggesting the scent line and teeth line are attached in early development but not later in life, or at the very least you can think of the space between them as an odd non radial typology.

QUOTE (colddigger @ Nov 15 2021, 08:18 PM)

Like if a sauceback can even regrow teeth or have baby teeth and adult teeth, without disrupting the nostril?

Even if they remain connected there's no currently established reason to think a broken tooth being regrown would lead to a defunct nostril, or for that matter that a hearthead descendent breaking its teeth would go blind. If at all, it is likely the nostril would be connected to the root canal underneath the tooth rather then the tooth itself.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Nov 15 2021, 06:21 PM)

I just realized...there are a lot of organisms that eat plents, but how many can actually digest wood? Wood is very hard to digest. Do they eat around the bones? Do they spit up bone fragments? Can they handle the occasional nodent twig-like bone but not, say, dualtrunk leg-bones?

Good question

Click to expand

Should I expand on it and add the lovely dental image to the description?

I love the mouth image

QUOTE (colddigger @ Nov 16 2021, 12:18 AM)

I love the mouth image

Just for comparison, this is what I think is going on for the some of the older lineages:

Update: It has recently come to my attention that suacebacks have tongues. Fixed.

The default sauceback tongue is probably shorter and more muscular than that. It's used to produce their echolocation sounds and aid in swallowing and probably doesn't get stuck out much, except in the species with big tongues.

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Nov 20 2021, 01:39 AM)

The default sauceback tongue is probably shorter and more muscular than that. It's used to produce their echolocation sounds and aid in swallowing and probably doesn't get stuck out much, except in the species with big tongues.

Welp, now it has a big fat stubby tongue.



Anything else that needs to be changed before it's ready?

This post has been edited by Papainmanis: Nov 19 2021, 06:16 PM