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Tamtank (Entomarmadillo sonitus)
Creator: Beans
Ancestor: Tambug
Habitat: Darwin Temperate Savannah , Mid Darwin Temperate Woodland, East Darwin Chaparral
Size: 1m long
Support: Exoskeleton (Citin), Endoskeleton (Aragonite)
Diet: Herbivore: (Crooked Cushio, Crystal Peridot, Forest Purplestem, Neurocrystal, Overnight Mycostrum, Polyblade, Rubyshroom, Chandelieruby, Purplecone, Triplet Purplestem)
Respiration: Active (Unidirectional Lungs)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual

As a result of the nitrogen and oxygen crash, a whole slew of new niches opened up for those who have survived. Countless organisms have increased in size and hastily filled loads of niches, including many new predators. Descendents of the tambug were one such organism that joined in to fill the ecological void. Remaining as herbivores they increased in size as a result of less competition and less predators. However as herbivores increased in size in this predator-reduced environment, so did their predators. And the descendents of the tambug took drastic measures to avoid becoming prey. Tambugs already have a number of defensive adaptations, and these strategies would be further pursued. Their exoskeleton thickened and created extended plates covering part of their legs. They have also developed a large shield-like hood extending from the frontmost segment of the main body. This hood extends over the whole length of their neck as protection. The spines ancestral to tambugs became much more numerous, and are notably large on the tail. This tail has become a spiked mace like weapon, and to better its use, it has become much more flexible.

Simply possessing a weapon does not mean that an encounter cannot still be dangerous. So Tamtanks have a unique method to warn predators that they are not messing around. One that joins the emerging chorus of sound in this otherwise silent world. The fan-like antennae of the ancestral tambug has been converted into a percussion instrument. When threatened it will rapidly clap its antennae together up to 50 times a second. Creating an abrupt, loud, and often startling warning sound. Most organisms with ears on Sagan 4 are not used to hearing such a loud sound apart from non-living events like thunder and falling objects. And as a result the warning sound alone can scare away danger. However this method does not scare away predators 100% of the time, especially if said predator is deaf. To keep the warning message to deaf predators, the antennae have a bright colouration and create a flashy blurry effect when clapping. These clappers are still used for communication in a similar way to their ancestor. When a tamtank is threatened and using its clappers, it ends up warning others about the danger as well. Of course an organism’s life does not consist of dangerous encounters all the time, in fact it's rather uncommon.

The tamtank spends a lot of its time chewing on flora. They possess a deeper jaw to allow for a more muscular tongue-pad that can more thoroughly mash up tough flora. Tamtanks still dig burrows, for both hibernation and to escape harsh weather events. They have even less of a concept of “territory” and will build burrows for themselves all around a given area. This makes tamanks ecosystem engineers similar to terran desert tortoises by inadvertently building shelter for other organisms, albeit slightly less tolerant of sharing the same burrow with others than that of real world tortoises. However once rearing eggs tamtanks will lay them in one burrow where they will stick around and defend it from raiders. Their eggs are no longer able to absorb moisture and are now watertight, living off the moisture they were laid with. Male tamtanks possess a blue grey-ish head with red eye and antennae highlights to attract mates. The reign of the large arthrotheres may be over, but some still manage to make a stand.

I'll get back to this later, but, for the most obvious issue: this seems to have only three legs, and it's missing Generation information on the picture.

Oh yea of corse the generation name. Also 3 legs wasn't really the intention, this was made during the time where i worked under the assumption that the legs in view were covering the background legs. Nothing that 3 leg shaped blobs cant fix

Uhh... does it normally take a while for the image to update?

Aha i finally fixed it. That was odd, it only actually changed when i made a new image that specifically had a new name

Just realized how utterly confusing this will be now that it shares a naming scheme with Alpha's tams... Tamtank sounds like it could be a Tamkor evo

I, too, realized this will be confusing. I think "tam", and I think "brown furry long-tailed quadruped mammaloid likely to have a button mushroom nose", which is true of most "tams".
"Tamb" as a clade prefix could be a reasonable compromise.

I'm still tired while recovering from the flu, so I'll leave only a quick check for now. The template's spacing needs to be compressed. The habitat names should be capitalized, there's an out-of-place comma after "Triplet Purplestem", and the specific diet items should be in parentheses after "Herbivore". The legs also shouldn't be pure black blobs, but should be naturalistically representative.

Some of the spikes in the middle of the organism look rather flat. It looks rooted to texturally impossible bases on the shell. Making the spikes in the middle section shorter by making them start closer to the left side, and adding shading on the lower sides of each segment, should help make its shape easier to read.

QUOTE

I'm still tired while recovering from the flu, so I'll leave only a quick check for now. The template's spacing needs to be compressed. The habitat names should be capitalized, there's an out-of-place comma after "Triplet Purplestem", and the specific diet items should be in parentheses after "Herbivore". The legs also shouldn't be pure black blobs, but should be naturalistically representative. Some of the spikes in the middle of the organism look rather flat. It looks rooted to texturally impossible bases on the shell. Making the spikes in the middle section shorter by making them start closer to the left side, and adding shading on the lower sides of each segment, should help make its shape easier to read.

On the contrary, I think the spines are quite readable, if a bit wonky.

What do you mean by "texturally impossible"?

I think "pure black blobs" is also fine for the legs in the background here. They're not blobs anyway, they're shaped the same as the legs nearer to the foreground, just in extremely dark shading.

This post has been edited by Cube67: Feb 23 2023, 06:17 PM

Each armor segment is drawn as if it’s flat, like blades of glass or Longisquama scales. However, the shading of the spikes, namely the shading on their undersides, suggests they are not similarly flat, like leaves of grass with triangular tips, but are structures with more depth, like the prickles on a burr or the fangs of a cat. The art uses particular shapes and shading schemes that look like cut-out strips of construction paper placed in curved shapes resembling an armadillo’s segments, with cat fangs glued on, rather than the 3D structure of a a prickle-coated armadillo.

Adjusting the shape of the base of the spikes and slightly reducing the spike density in the first and second segment after the first orange segment, as well as adding better shading to suggest a round shape, would make it clearer. This shouldn’t be that hard to do, since basic shading and therefore depth was already followed on the limbs, neck, and head. Incidentally, the shape and shading choices on the tail suggests a square cross-section instead of a round one, which is odd but not impossible, even if it’s surely more characteristic of flora (e.g., mint stems, which are squarish).

The legs are not only simply drawn or drawn as implausibly dark. They're drawn as mere silhouettes, which is inaccurate.

I don't think silhouette legs are a big deal.

The art communicates the organism's form.

Ok did the word related fixes. Though i too don't think having background legs being a silhouette would be of concern, as long as the foreground legs all happen to be the counterpart to the ones not seen. Especially considering we wont be able to see much of the background legs regardless.

The reasoning behind how the plates may look flat was because i didn't know how the shading on the shell itself could be done with all those spikes, so i instead focused on shading the spikes themselves.

And as Dorite said, it communicates the form of the organism, i don't remember these things ever really being an issue before, many are in fact unable to properly execute a few of the things you mentioned.

Also this is not to be combative, but some of your descriptions are a bit unflattering, specifically this part:"The art uses particular shapes and shading schemes that look like cut-out strips of construction paper placed in curved shapes resembling an armadillo’s segments, with cat fangs glued on". I know this was meant to be constructive and as you said, you are recovering from a flu but still. I remember past me putting a lot of tedious work on shading those spikes to try the best i could at making it at least appear like its meant to be 3D, and here it is described as a bunch of cut out strips of paper and glue. Don't worry too much though i do understand the intention, this is just for future reference.