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Great Hystin (Turpis magnum) (big ugly)
Creator: Disgustedorite
Ancestor: Pinsyk
Habitat: East Darwin Chaparral, Darwin Tropical Savanna, Darwin Monsoon Forest, Darwin Tropical Rainforest, Darwin Subtropical Woodland
Size: 3.2 meters long
Support: Endoskeleton (Bone)
Diet: Herbivore (Darwinblades, Grassterplents, Flopleaves, Polyblade, Tallstrand Crystals, Wortopedes, Mauvacken saplings)
Respiration: Active (Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Mesotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (male and female, live birth)

The great hystin split from its ancestor. The sudden lack of competition following the end-Binucleozoic extinction event, in combination with its hemerythrin blood which could function well despite the lower oxygen levels, allowed it to reach a greater size and claim a large herbivore niche. It rapidly evolved hundgut fermentation to become a grazer, cutting ground flora and shoving it into its mouth with its lateral mandibles to be ground up with its boney teeth. With no arthrothere predators around anymore and with its large size making long quills not especially advantageous, it has reduced and softened all of its spikes, resulting in them falling about its bulky body like hair. Its twin hearts are each two-chambered, allowing them to function together like a four-chambered heart, which helps it sustain its larger size.

The great hystin can exist in the woodlands due to the extinction of most large flora and low nitrogen conditions, which leaves even the newly-evolved trees more widely spaced, though it prefers younger growth where the large flora have not started to take over. It can also delay ecological succession by indiscriminately eating the saplings of trees. It is mostly solitary, however, so it is rare for it to actually extirpate trees from a region.

The Great Hystin has a very deep lower jaw in proportion to its skull. The depth of its jaw serves to house a very strong muscular tongue, as being covered in teeth and having greater mobility than its actual jaws, this is what it primarily uses to chew. It can grind through not just cellulose-based purple and star flora, but also shelled crystal and worm flora.

The length, quality, and sheen of a great hystin’s hair is used in mate selection. It gives birth to just 1 or 2 babies at a time. Baby hystins are fairly well-developed and can run from predators at birth, and they take 2 years to reach full size.

Would this graze on stellafrutex?

EDIT: wait no, wrong continent. oops.

This post has been edited by Cube67: Feb 12 2023, 08:18 PM