Quite pleased that you actually used the name I threw out.

Nergali, looks like there might be motivation for your idea of evolving the Honey Toadtuga!

Updated.

I'll be honest, I had the impression that the diet listed made it relatively clear that it's diet was 50/50 like the Flutuga. I even counted how many floral vs faunal organisms there were.

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Jun 1 2021, 08:16 AM)

"to help hide in the forest floor;" That suggests intention, which is discouraged. I see it has a very broad diet. Does it have particular preferences, overall, by season, or by life stage? At least some herbivorous birds have strongly insect-loving nestlings.

What do you suggest I change it to?

"ballont"

?

Dinotuga (Gallichelys currentis)

Creator: TheBigDeepCheatsy
Ancestor: Flutuga
Habitat: North Darwin Tropical Scrub, Darwin Tropical Woodland, Darwin Tropical Rainforest, Darwin Temperate Rainforest, Darwin Temperate Woodland, Vivus Temperate Rainforest, Darwin Chaparral
Size: 70 cm Long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Omnivore (Vermees, Minikruggs, Silkruggs, Teacup Saucebacks, Dartirs, Sapworms, Bloodback, Umbral Sphinx, Dungshell Fraboo, Corkscrew Krugg, Perfume Krugg, Whiskrugg, Grub Krugg, Communal Janit, Lazarus Soriparasite, Smirking Soriparasite, Eggslurping Sorite, Barkback, Plumottle, Shrubrattus, Chasing Twintail, Gryphler, Brighteyes larvae, Sunstalks, Marbleflora, Supershrooms, Sapshrooms, Tamed Berry Arbourshrooms, Puffgrass, Tropical Puffgrass, Berry Arbourshroom, Fibreflora shoots, Woodland Grovecrystal shoots, Tropical Crystamboo shoots, Caprystal shoots, Gargantuan Obsiditree shoots, Quibil berries, Feroak fruits, Fruiting Grovecrystal fruits, Scrubland Tubeplage fruits, Fuzzpile fruits, Branching Qupe Tree fruits and shoots, Cup Qupe fruits and shoots, Quhft fruits and shoots, Scrubland Quhft fruits and shoots, Tropical Gecoba Tree fruits), Scavenger
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Heterotherm (Basking, Heat from Muscle Activity)
Reproduction: Sexual, Leathery-Shelled Eggs, Male and Female

The dinotuga split from the flutuga and moved out from the crowded Biocat-Huggs River System into the eastern region of the Dixon-Darwin supercontinent. While it already had basic means of handling life on land, its ancestor still depended on water and it was not exactly equipped to handle some of the faster and more powerful predators living on land. To deal with this, the dinotuga had to make several quick evolutionary changes. The first of these is its skin taking on varying hues to help it blend in better with its environment. For those living in heavily wooded areas, they take on different shades of dark blue and indigo, which provides camouflage amongst the forest underbrush; while those living in scrublands have a golden color along with purple spots to provide camouflage in the golden dirt and purple flora.

In addition to its camouflaging skin, the dinotuga has evolved bipedal movement. However, because of it shifting to bipedal movement in a relatively short span of time, it had to start out as a facultative biped. Being a facultative biped means that it sits and walks on all fours, but it can stand up and run on two legs. This comes in handy when keeping an eye out for potential predators and being capable of better endurance running than its ancestor could. In order to make this happen, the dinotuga lost all the shell armor, except for a pair of plates protecting its neck, on the front half of its body to reduce the weight bearing down on its front limbs.

Further helping it with watching out for predators is the dinotuga's enhanced vision that gives it a better chance at seeing predators before they see it. Another anti-predator adaptation it has are that the remaining spikes on its lower half have elongated, which triples not only as a means of keeping the dinotuga from overheating in the obsidian forest or the sun beating down on the scrublands, but also putting more weight on the rear, which helps further maintains its bipedal stance. The dinotuga has also evolved into a heterotherm that basks and uses its muscle movement to help with its body temperature; while it does need to eat more than the ancestral flutuga, the dinotuga can go into torpor when it gets too cold or when food is less available.

Because it does not have a steady supply of water to lay its eggs in, the dinotuga's eggs have become encased in a leathery shell that helps retain water and protect the developing young from the outside world. Not only have its eggs changed, but the dinotuga's reproductive rituals have advanced to a degree as well. While male dinotugas will still butt-fence to some degree, they also include bouts of wrestling into their fighting. This wrestling is specifically wherein the males will stand up on two legs and use their front limbs to push against each other until one of them falls to the ground. The loser is driven out, while the winner mates with the desired female. After mating, the female will dig a pit in the dirt and lay her eggs in it then leave the male to raise the eggs. Similar to Terran snakes, the eggs will be slightly wet and stick together into a clump of eggs as they dry. Next, the male uses its mouth and front limbs to gather plenty of leaf litter, grasses, sticks, and mulch that it uses to form a large mound that keeps the eggs warm in order to allow them to develop safely. The male maintains vigilance over this mound by chasing off potential predators that get too close to the mound and changing the amount of litter to keep a stable temperature to ensure that reduces the likelihood of losing any eggs in the clutch. The young hatchlings are already well-developed, resembling their parents, except with an egg-tooth that helps them hatch and a set of stubbier spines that will grow with time. Once these hatchlings burrow out of the mound with a little help from the father, the father stops guarding them as dinotugas have no parental instincts to care for their young beyond hatching. Fortunately, the young are super-precocial, meaning they can already hunt and run on their own in a matter of minutes. This makes it easier for the adults to reproduce a lot, which means that dinotugas are a fairly common carpazoan that can provide food to all kinds of other organisms such as argusraptors, slitherworms, shrogs, and flunejaws.

Another interesting thing about dinotugas is the fact that they do feed on soriparasites and will even pick them off from larger fauna like the hornfaces and phlocks, which helps rid them of parasites; sometimes these larger fauna will even seek out dinotugas to help pick them off. Ironically, dinotugas will sometimes mooch tamed berry arbourshrooms from darth shroom herders when the opportunity arises. Lastly, in terms of diet, it still feeds 50/50 on fauna and flora, just like its ancestor.

Nice work on this fella!

What did you end up using for reference for the teeth?

Mnidjm, this is oddly beautiful.

QUOTE (Irinya @ Apr 29 2021, 09:51 PM)

Given how psychedelic some of the ancestors were, I wouldn't be surprised. Hypnodrak

I forgot about that actually.

Why do I get the feeling this will have hallucinogenic properties?

This is honestly really hardcore and maybe even your best species so far.

This is something that I could see being made into an action figure or some tiny figurine!

Brilliant design!

Really liking this furball’s colors!

I’m guessing that the young are born either without spines or rounded nubs of said spines?

Yuccagave has seeds, not fruits. Also, does the plexo actually eat the puffgrass or its seeds?

Rather fascinating, though I’ll admit that it would be helpful to see a rough sketch of what a diaminet island might look like?

“ hard’s stampede and try to aim for the butt-nostril thinking its an obvious weak point,”

Should be “... stampeding herd...” and “...it’s an obvious weak point”.

QUOTE (Cube67 @ Apr 2 2021, 05:01 PM)

It also seems to share a domestic animal theme with the adorned tamow. Maybe someone could make a chicken snapper for the Driftwood Islands as well.

Why not chicken or duck shorelance?

I personally feel this should no longer be called a Tamow, seeing how removed it is from the other tamows, but that’s just me.

I wonder if Nergali’s idea of eyeless super-nosed soriparasites could still work or not.

Regardless, it’s nice to see these guys again!

Fairyshell (Reptilovermis lepidus)

Creator: TheBigDeepCheatsy
Ancestor: Desert Phantomshell
Habitat: Barlowe Desert, Barlowe High Desert, Barlowe High Grassland, Barlowe Plains, Barlowe Chaparral
Size: 25 cm Long
Diet: Herbivore (Mainland Chime Slingberry, Sunstalks, Marbleflora, Supershrooms, Statue Piloroot berries, Spiny Piloroot berries, Regrestoloppy)
Respiration: I HAVE NO IDEA HOW LIZARDWORMS BREATHE, IF SOMEONE CAN FILL ME IN ON THAT, THAT WOULD BE GREAT
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm (Basking)
Reproduction: Sexual, Eggs, Male and Female

The fairyshell replaced its ancestor and moved further east towards the Barlowe Chaparral. As they spent more time away from their ancestral caves and surrounded by predators with eyesight, the fairyshell re-evolved its own eyesight. However, it can only see everything in a blurry greyscale form, but it is sufficient enough to tell between light and darkness, which helps with their nocturnal lifestyle. On top of that, its ancestor’s microfilaments have enhanced into bristle-like setae that cover both pairs of its sensory limbs; these setae further enhance its ability to sense vibrations in the air and help it know its surroundings.

Along with regaining its eyes and improving its radar-like detection, the fairyshell has regained its rust-red pigmentation, allowing it to stay camouflaged in the soil, so it does not have to constantly run away from potential predators. In fact, its main means of evading them is to hide, crouch down, stay still, and wait for the danger to pass by, paying close attention to the vibrations around it. Should this fail, the fairyshell bolts as fast as its legs can carry it and will try to run and hide until predators will either give up on chasing it or find themselves unable to reach it. To further help its speed, it has become smaller, evolved a slightly longer tail to help it change trajectory, and stands in a semi-digitigrade stance.

The fairyshell has increased the variety in its diet by including supershrooms, sunstalks, and marbleflora. The fairyshell no longer feeds on the pollen of the regrestoloppy, as this was not exactly sufficient for its size, but it still manages to pollinate it. It does this whenever it bites into regrestoloppies and the spores get caught on the setae of its frontmost sensory limbs. As it travels, the spores fall off and grow into new regrestoloppies. This has allowed the regrestoloppy to spread out into the Barlowe High Desert, Barlowe High Grassland, Barlowe Plains, and Barlowe Chaparral. It also managed to spread the statue piloroot and spiny piloroot by feeding on their berries and defecating the seeds in the Barlowe High Desert, Barlowe High Grassland, Barlowe Plains, and Barlowe Chaparral as well.

The fairyshell reproduces by mating with the couple facing opposite directions in a similar manner as Terran cockroaches, guaranteeing they will both be able to look out for predators while mating. After doing so, the female fairyshell looks for any sort of cover including leaf litter, rocks, or soil; next, it digs a small hole and lays up to 50 eggs per brood and leaves them to fend for themselves when they hatch. The young are born with soft white exoskeletons and they spend most of their time hiding underground or just barely under the leaf litter while they grow into adults. Unfortunately, not all of these eggs make it as the mostly purple snoa finds them to be a tasty snack. This has also allowed the mostly purple snoa to spread out into the Barlowe Plains and Barlowe Chaparral.

I’m admittedly a little iffy on how squished the torso looks, I’m guessing that’s due to it lifting its rear up?

QUOTE (OviraptorFan @ Mar 20 2021, 09:23 PM)

QUOTE (TheBigDeepCheatsy @ Mar 20 2021, 10:56 PM) “ This presented itself with females who began to retain the eggs inside their bodies for longer and longer periods, while the eggs adapted to develop inside the mother. This got to the point where the mother never lays the eggs and they hatch within her body as small juveniles, having developed past the tadpole stage within their eggs before being born.” I feel like this would be more along the lines of oviviparity rather than full viviparity. And it should be “under-developed”. These are really great designs you’ve done and you should be proud of yourself! what do you mean Cheatsy regarding the oviviparity? also where would "under-developed" go? Thank you for the feed back and the compliments!

Oviviparity: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovoviviparity

What you’re describing sounds like oviviparity rather than full-on viviparity.

“ This presented itself with females who began to retain the eggs inside their bodies for longer and longer periods, while the eggs adapted to develop inside the mother. This got to the point where the mother never lays the eggs and they hatch within her body as small juveniles, having developed past the tadpole stage within their eggs before being born.”

I feel like this would be more along the lines of oviviparity rather than full viviparity.

And it should be “under-developed”.

These are really great designs you’ve done and you should be proud of yourself!

So would eating the females be considered insectivory or herbivory?

QUOTE (Disgustedorite @ Mar 11 2021, 11:43 AM)

As I mentioned previously farming is pretty dangerous when it's combined with intelligence. In Beta, the is a rule that if a species can be mistaken for a person, the description must explain why it is not; I don't know if that rule has been adopted in Alpha, but it may be valuable to include a paragraph on that anyway.

What suggestions would you have?