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“ 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!

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!

"and thus replace them" (that should be "and thus replacing them" or "to replace them".

"living only in the Plains" is odd; I recommend "plains".

If their numbers dwindled rapidly over the decades and their future looked "grim" at some point, they would surely have gone through a population bottleneck. If they went through a population bottleneck at some point, wouldn't it be reflected in their genetics? Pandas, cheetahs, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and humans are all examples of species that have gone through population bottlenecks.

The eggs are retained within the oviduct like ovoviviparous snakes, right? Some Fermisaurs have "pool organs" which, I assume, are farther inside and somewhat more womb-like. Can you clarify "small juveniles"? Do they make bigger eggs, or is their bodily growth within the egg comparatively compressed, while the land adaptations still happen?

"The armor present[...]" I recommend adding commas, or splitting up that sentence.

"and thus needs" Her limited hunting prowess doesn't limit her need to rely on her mate and other members of the pack, as the grammar suggests. "And thus she" would be clearer.

"under developed" Under-developed.

Out of curiosity, are the live young pushed out, a la mammals, or do they climb out?

"Due to a high amount of energy required for their elaborate reproductive activities, their brains have simplified to require less energy to run said brain and as such they have a much more simple language."

Wolves, bonobos, and wild turkeys all have, to some degree, elaborate "reproductive activities" (Courtship? Gestation?) and are still intelligent. The human brain itself, for all its sophistication, doesn't require that much energy to run. It's not uniquely energy-hungry, either. (https://www.futurity.org/humans-brain-energy-cost-1596812/)

If it lived in a very food-limited environment, like deep in a cave or in a desert, perhaps trimming its brain's caloric consumption would be sensible, but here, the reasoning doesn't make sense.

" they are old enough to fend for themselves" repeating "fend for themselves" twice is awkward.

I actually recommended the reduction in smarts; Rainbowtail was apparently written with intent to create a sapient species, which is. a big no-no

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Mar 20 2021, 11:58 PM)

"and thus replace them" (that should be "and thus replacing them" or "to replace them". "living only in the Plains" is odd; I recommend "plains". If their numbers dwindled rapidly over the decades and their future looked "grim" at some point, they would surely have gone through a population bottleneck. If they went through a population bottleneck at some point, wouldn't it be reflected in their genetics? Pandas, cheetahs, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and humans are all examples of species that have gone through population bottlenecks. The eggs are retained within the oviduct like ovoviviparous snakes, right? Some Fermisaurs have "pool organs" which, I assume, are farther inside and somewhat more womb-like. Can you clarify "small juveniles"? Do they make bigger eggs, or is their bodily growth within the egg comparatively compressed, while the land adaptations still happen? "The armor present[...]" I recommend adding commas, or splitting up that sentence. "and thus needs" Her limited hunting prowess doesn't limit her need to rely on her mate and other members of the pack, as the grammar suggests. "And thus she" would be clearer. "under developed" Under-developed. Out of curiosity, are the live young pushed out, a la mammals, or do they climb out? "Due to a high amount of energy required for their elaborate reproductive activities, their brains have simplified to require less energy to run said brain and as such they have a much more simple language." Wolves, bonobos, and wild turkeys all have, to some degree, elaborate "reproductive activities" (Courtship? Gestation?) and are still intelligent. The human brain itself, for all its sophistication, doesn't require that much energy to run. It's not uniquely energy-hungry, either. (https://www.futurity.org/humans-brain-energy-cost-1596812/) If it lived in a very food-limited environment, like deep in a cave or in a desert, perhaps trimming its brain's caloric consumption would be sensible, but here, the reasoning doesn't make sense. " they are old enough to fend for themselves" repeating "fend for themselves" twice is awkward.

I asked the discord about anything I should have changed about the description before I had submitted it, as I prefer to work on there. I'm not entirely sure on how the reproduction and intelligence works, as I was trying to submit what I know and what people like dorite suggested. How would you suggest I do the birthing process and intelligence? Plus how could I reflect the bottleneck?

Meanwhile I made the edits both you and Cheatsy suggested I should make.

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.

QUOTE

I asked the discord about anything I should have changed about the description before I had submitted it, as I prefer to work on there. I'm not entirely sure on how the reproduction and intelligence works, as I was trying to submit what I know and what people like dorite suggested. How would you suggest I do the birthing process and intelligence? Plus how could I reflect the bottleneck? Meanwhile I made the edits both you and Cheatsy suggested I should make.

As TheBigDeepCheatsy says, the reproduction seems to be ovoviviparity. I would recommend the eggs be kept in the oviduct, and the newly-hatched young would be expelled by contractions, as it is for ovoviviparous snakes. I am uncertain about whether the eggs should be extra-big or whether the baby Signaltails would be smaller compared to equivalent developmental stages in its ancestor. I suppose that depends on the size of its ancestors' eggs. Its ancestor's description already mentioned: "Because of the high numbers of larva surviving, Rainbowtails will lay fewer eggs". Laying them as juveniles might make them even more likely to survive, suggesting they might have fewer young than their ancestor for lack of need.

The cognitive buffer hypothesis suggests higher general intelligence evolves to deal with novel or changing environments. According to this source (https://source.wustl.edu/2017/09/came-first-big-brains-demanding-environments/), birds with big brains are able to move into more seasonal, unpredictable places. The source also says: "“We showed that species with big brains maintain stable populations in environments where the temperature, precipitation or productivity change a lot, and species with smaller brains cope less well,” Botero said."

If its lifestyle is somehow easier, or more predictable, it may have less reason to keep its ancestor's high level of intelligence. Its ancestor's intelligence was handy for making spawning pools, and spawning pool construction behaviors were most of its nigh-sapient behaviors, but this one doesn't use spawning pools anymore, from lack of need. ​Still, it's odd how they wouldn't use that behavior as an exaptation for something else, such as making the pits carcass storage areas. (Dogs, squirrels, and scrub jays bury food)
​
For the high grasslands, one could argue the soil is too thin or rocky to dig, at least for those organisms with minimal natural digging adaptations, like this one. For the plains, though....plains are likely easy to dig. People did make dugout homes in the American Plains, after all. If there's more strong, woody roots than one might expect in the plains, or dangerous digging predators easily alerted by digging activities, or scavengers very effective at detecting and stealing their food, that might lead to a loss of caching behavior as an exaptation from birthing pool digging. Ergo, there would be less reason to preserve the intelligence that would grant them the capability to dig pools.

Something like a cave or a rainforest would be very predictable in resource availability compared to, say, a savanna, monsoon forest or temperate forests, with big seasonal variations. But I figure the plains and high grasslands environments don't fit those parameters.

As for the bottleneck? Well, you could simply state it has fairly low genetic diversity as a consequence of a historic bottleneck in the Drake Plains Rainbowtail population. If you want to be harsh, you could say they, like cheetahs, commonly have infertility problems or low litter sizes. You could, however, say it's largely compensated for by their social lifestyles and low offspring mortality rates. Perhaps they have a promiscuous mating system, so that if one mate is infertile, it doesn't matter like it would for a monogamous species because they mate with multiple individuals.

This post has been edited by Coolsteph: Mar 21 2021, 08:55 AM

TheBigDeepCheatsy and Coolsteph

alright, I made the edits you guys suggested, thoughts on it? Think the species is good?

The baby is pretty adorable.

Yes, I think it is good. I see no other things which ought to be corrected or clarified.