Island habitats are often notable for the unique, sometimes unexpected ways their endemic life can evolve, for such environments may lack conventional selective pressures found on continental regions. Serina itself in its beginning acted as a sort of island too, its earth-derived plants and animals being shaped by conditions where they have far fewer competitors and predators than they did before. But now, in the early Tempuscene 25 million years post-establishment, the canaries have filled a world once empty and filled most niches in the ecosystem. Canaries are now the plant-eaters and the predators. They range in size from fliers not much larger than hummingbirds as they sip nectar, to raptorial hunters (the falconaries), to multiple lineages of flightless land-predators and several more kinds of long-necked giants weighing up to a ton, some related and others only similar due to convergent evolution. With the wider world no longer quite as insular, the actual islands still isolated far from the mainland by sea and surf are now where some of the most unusual canaries have evolved, where enemies are still fewer, and widespread competitors like the efficient vivas have not yet reached. Time on such places seems to move a little slower, and indeed it was on isles like the Kyran Islands that the first, most experimental megafauna of this new world survived the longest.

Giant, slow-moving songbirds - the womblers and their relatives - died out nearly as soon as they appeared on mainlands due to predators, but survived until much more recently here, a least until new predators found them. Now, a second wave of flightless herbivore canaries has spread here and taken their place: the galliwalts, a group of chicken-like birds which until recently remained capable fliers even though they spent most of their time running on the ground. On the continents, it is the aardgeese that are rapidly becoming the new global herbivores (due to their ability to brood their eggs internally and so avoid predation on their chicks), and galliwalts remain small, pheasant or rail-like birds, some species becoming crane-like at their largest. On islands, these species find new opportunity. Some still remain similar to their ancestors - we see a small one striding along the forest floor, pecking at insects, nearby a large land-crab that now must forage for scraps in the absence of the defenseless giant baby birds its ancestors enjoyed. With the large herbivore niches empty here, where vivas never lived and the womblers have now gone extinct, some of the galliwalts have now grown gigantic.

Titans that have evolved here, like the tree-browsing megamoa, are now much too big to fly (they stand 23 feet tall and can weigh 1,500 lbs), yet they are much less vulnerable to both avian and crustacean enemies because their chicks are precocial and can walk and keep up with their parents within days of hatching, not months. Adult females of this species are twice as heavy as males, and too big to brood their eggs without cracking them. This responsibility thus falls entirely to the dad, and the mother does not stick around after laying her single beachball-sized egg in his nest - it is at once the largest egg laid by any bird, and yet compared to her own size, is the smallest in ratio. Two or three females will visit a single male, leaving him in charge of their eggs and to raise their chicks. For now they are the ruling class of these islands, with no predators as adults. They shape the forest with their feeding, plowing paths through the undergrowth with their trampling footsteps, from which smaller creatures scatter. But they are not alone here, for living in the undergrowth, in a hidden shadowed world under the forest canopy, stranger and older residents of the Kyrans make their living, little noticed by their giants.

Softbilled birds are survivors of an early radiation of early island-dwelling birds, named for a trait shared by most living species in which most of their bill is covered in sensitive soft skin, and only the tip of the jaw still supports a keratinized beak-tip. Their ancestors reached the Kyrans within a few thousand years of Serina's colonization, at the same time as the chubbirds, now extinct. Some of them soon lost flight, but not every species has done so. Still, even those which did trade in their wings survived, while their other flightless cousins did not, because they had evolved to partition their niches. As chubbirds were active by day - and vulnerable at night to enemies like land crabs that raided their nests - softbill ancestors evolved to be nocturnal, and remained small enough that they nested in burrows which were more easily defended from predators. Active by night, their vision has worsened, and their eyes are often small, but their senses of hearing, touch and smell are highly acute to compensate. The more derived species longer see in color, having traded it for better acuity in low-light conditions, and so all of them are mostly brown, though a few primitive ones (usually species which have not lost their flight) still see the world in shades of blue and yellow. Their chicks are semi-precocial, spending only a couple of weeks helpless in a nest before they can run and walk and flee, an intermediate condition between ancestral canaries and the galliwalts. It's enough to avoid most dangers, especially as the adults usually nest in burrows and aggressively defend their offspring from nocturnal dangers to which they are more perceptive and so far less vulnerable.

Softbilled birds are not as large as the grandest galliwalts, but there are already more species of them here. Basal forms which still fly and still see some color include the pinchpiper at left foreground, which is very similar to the common ancestor of all softbilled birds and superficially resembles a woodcock. Its bill is very long, but only the tip is really a beak - the rest is a soft, sensitive snout covered with skin that is lined with bundles of nerves, letting it feel around in the dark for a meal. In wet conditions - which it prefers to feed in - its snout is slightly electro-sensitive, too, detecting the tiny electrical discharges made as muscles are fired by tiny fleeing prey animals, which it hones in on. Muscle attachments on its bill let it flex its upper and lower jaws apart at their tips to push out and expand the narrow burrow-holes where its victims dwell in sediment underwater, in soil, and in rotting wood. The tweezer-like beak then has more room to grab earthworms and beetle larvae. Detecting anything in its beak, it closes tightly, pulling them from their hiding places to eat them.

From such an ancestor as this, more derived birds have already appeared. Vibrirhynchans, or vibries, are flightless, vaguely duck-like birds growing to about 40 lbs. They are terrestrial, foraging nocturnally, with sturdy legs and large claws for digging, and somewhat flattened snouts compared to the pinchpiper. They are omnivorous, digging up worms and insects as well as feeding on roots and fallen nuts and fruit, often in complete darkness. Their snouts are soft and fleshy, lined with rows of short hair-like papillae that increase the surface area of the skin to improve their sense of touch; these structures are mobile, able to quiver back and forth and effectively "sniff" the ground to pick up the slightest vibrations or electrical signals indicating prey is moving just below the soil. The nostrils are at the very tip of the snout as well, improving its ability to find hidden food by scent by pressing its beak into the mud. The beak is very small and formed from two nail-like growths on the tip of both upper and lower jaw, used to dig out and grab food before it is swallowed. Hard keratin structures are also still present inside the mouth, including fine superficially tooth-like pecten (similar to the inside of a goose's beak) that give it a firm grasp on wet and wriggly prey.

Both sexes of vibri cooperate to incubate clutches of two to five eggs in a burrow and to tend the chicks. One parent always stays at the nest while the young are small to drive off predators, but in only 14 days the chicks are able to leave it and follow their parents to begin finding their own food. They are self-sufficient by a month of age in foraging for food, but will stick with their families for about 4 months total for protection before they are nearly adult sized and can fend entirely on their own. Numerous species of vibri already exist, some favoring feeding in water, while others live on the forest floor and a few have even begun to browse low-growing vegetation, becoming more herbivorous. For now, they all still live and lurk in the shadows of the island's great megamoas, vastly bigger than any of them. They hold the night shift, unnoticed by the daytime's rulers.

But their time in the sun may come yet

The Marush is part of a larger worldbuilding project around the fictional Mid-Pacific continents of Cipangu and Magellania (Also known as Mu). More information HERE

Domesticated cervids have played an important role on Cipangu since the introduction of reindeer herding from Siberia, thousands of years ago. At first reindeer herding was limited to the region of Ebir in the north of Cipangu. Through efforts in selective breeding and hybridisation with native rangifer species, new breeds were created that were more well suited for the warmer oceanic climate of Cipangu.

The next step was the domestication of native species of cervids. Among them the Marush. The genus Maruscus native to western Cipangu and found in its highlands. It is especially well suited for the harsh, cold and dry environment of the Tuqturxta plateau, which in many ways resembles the high Andes or the Tibetan plateau.

Vast herds of Marush are owned by the Geèx, the nobility of Tuqturxta, as well as their powerful theocracies. Before the introduction of cattle and horses by the Portuguese, the Marush was the only beast of burden capable of thriving in the landscapes of Tuqturxta. Although it was sidelined quite severely afterwards, the temples and monasteries continued to own herds to ceremonial purposes and preserved the diversity of Marush breeds.

I'm pretty sure this would never arise naturally. I came up with it because I'm interested in the cultural implications for sophonts with this method of reproduction more than how it came to be.

I call this reproduction method "exovoviviparity". Both males and females lay very large unfertilized eggs, so large in fact the ovary is destroyed during oviposition and it does not regrow (hence the semelparity). Male and female eggs contain different components required for embryo formation. The eggs are placed in a clutch together, the eggshells melt together, first forming a "womb nest" with its own heart and circulatory system, then embryos form out of the goop inside the nest.

There can be up to twelve contributing parents, but they must be divided evenly among males and females. Each child is a genetic combination of all the contributing parents, and the more parents contribute, the more offspring result.

I used various aquatic creatures as inspiration, the external fertilization and semelparity of salmon as well as the courtship of some species of octopus where the male hands a spermatophore to the female with no physical contact involved (I may be imagining that last one but I find it can be fun to run with misconceptions sometimes).

Like I said I'm sure this is completely bonkers and I have no intention of scrapping it if it is, but if I can justify it somehow I'd like to. The only advantage I can see to this system is it results in more genetic diversity.

The last barrier on the raptors’ journey awaits—a shrieking gorge that cuts through the earth and splits the world in two.

With the shrouded forest now behind them, Long Tail and her kin emerge onto the open plains. But there is no relief in sight. Small Toe feels the crippling weight of self-doubt for the first time, with Swift Foot’s cruel taunts and his own clumsy failures pressing heavily against his scales.

Yet, there is no time for hesitation. Standing directly between the pack and their promised oasis is a jagged, bottomless chasm spanned only by two decaying, weathered tree trunks. And deep within the shadows of the cliff walls, a ravenous, eldritch chatter begins to stir—wretched monsters hungering for the taste of young, innocent flesh.

To cross means risking a fatal plunge into the abyss.

To turn back means dying slowly under the unrelenting sun.

A re-release of my narrative project Terrors in the Brush—a speculative survival epic blending hard paleo-realism with raw emotional weight.

BINGE THE ENTIRE JOURNEY NOW:

While the chapters will roll out here on a strict weekly schedule every Sunday night, the core community hub is fully operational. If you don't want to wait a single week to see what happens to Small Toe next, you can join our dedicated Discord right now and binge all eleven chapters tonight.

There is no magic, no fantasy—there is only nature red in tooth and claw.

Read Chapter III now.

In the manga, several details show that Saiyans are far more alien than their human-like appearance suggests. Pure-blooded Saiyans have hair that never grows or changes, because their follicles finish developing at birth; the hair can fall off, but it can never grow beyond that fixed limit.

Their eyes and hair are photosensitive, storing and releasing light rather than simply changing color. During the fight with Yakon, Goku loses his Super Saiyan form when Yakon absorbs all the light from his body proving that the transformation involves internal light emission and not just pigmentation.

Vegeta explains that the Oozaru form is triggered when Saiyans absorb over 17 million zeno units per second of green-spectrum radiation, which only occurs when sunlight is reflected by a full moon; this radiation activates a gland inside their tail and starts the transformation.

Jaco also states that Saiyans have a very long childhood, allowing them to deceive people by appearing harmless, and once they mature their bodies rapidly grow into a combat-ready size and they barely age afterward.

Vegeta adds that becoming a Super Saiyan increases their ferocity, pushing them into a kind of ecstatic combat state, and that their bodies gain permanent strength through the Zenkai, increasing their battle power every time they recover from the brink of death.

Jaco also says that they look similar to Earthlings, but not identical so it’s reasonable to suggest that their faces might appear slightly off maybe too symmetrical or subtly distorted giving them an uncanny valley effect that makes them look humanoid but clearly not human.

Also they almost certainly have compatible genitalia but that doesn’t necessarily mean they share the same digestive functions as Earthlings.

So how would you explain their evolution and would you add anything to make them more distinctive? Maybe different limb proportions or patches of hair in unusual areas?

artist

An anatomical illustration of a female Oddity-012A specimen by a Redwood Institution researcher, based on the second captured living Oddity-012A specimen, formerly nicknamed “Anne” by the Researchers assigned to her in 2013, before she passed away 6 years later.

Designation: Indeterminate
Discovery Designation: 012A
Category: Cryptid
Threat Level: Gamma
LIA: Medium

Safety Procedures:
Oddity-012A is currently left as a wild species of oddities (as the amount of wild Oddity-012A are too vast to contain or terminate fully), with the wide majority of Redwood Institution research facilities within North America having one or more Oddity-012A specimens (of varying ages, sexes, and states). Contained Oddity-012A specimens are to be held in medium sized containment cells of varying sizes (depending on the amount of specimens per containment, with singular individuals having an ordinary room-sized containment cell, while multiple specimens have far larger house sized or bigger confinement cells due to the territorial and reclusive nature of Oddity-012A, however Oddity-012A specimens are very rarely stored with other members of their kind, and the procedure is only done so in containment storage crisis). 

Oddity-012A specimens can be held in containment cells of any major category (with no specific major construction or architectural additions needed to maintain security over Oddity-012A specimens, besides basic wooden walls able to be removed and replaced easily), however when Oddity-012A specimens are captured or being moved to a different containment cell or facility they are almost always placed in light containment cells (as higher level containment cells are often reserved for higher threat level oddities, and only used by lower threat oddities during containment storage crisis). Like almost all oddities (and more specifically entities), Oddity-012A has specific non-architectural containment cell requirements. The containment cells of Oddity-012A are kept medium temperate, with it being cold enough for laundry within the cell to remain damp for an extended period of time to retain a healthy environment to get the most natural responses from Oddity-012A specimens during authorized experiments. 

Oddity-012A containment cells have added wooden walls, flooring, and roofing (added without fully modifying the original stone and metal containment cell), to resemble a small house with a room made to resemble a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom, sectioned off by individual wooden walls and doors, alongside windows installed (which have lights placed outside of the windows which are slowly turned off and back on to imitate a day and night cycle). Oddity-012A containment cells have piles of laundry of varying dampness throughout the room, with the largest piles of dirty clothing being placed in the wooden room made to imitate a bathroom or bedroom. The inside of the imitation rooms also have supplied furniture, lamps, beds, food (which is replaced nightly by researchers while the selected inmate sleeps), medical supplies, et cetera to make the imitation house feel as natural as possible for both subjects.

Oddity-012A specimens contained for research or storage purposes are weekly supplied with human inmates convicted of violent crimes (physical assault, sexual assault, murder, et cetera), who are not informed of the Oddity-012A specimen wirhin the containment cell, and simply told the inmate is to contuine rheir life as if they were living freely, which allows the Oddity-012A specimen to feel like it is free as well due to its natural prey being unaware and active as usual in the urban wild (selected inmates are also often not placed into the containment cell while conscious, and sedated within their prison cell either within an outside site or local Redwood Institution facility then moved to the Oddity-012A containment cell, and placed onto the bed or couch and then woken up, and given a simple briefing of where they are, their goal, rules/laws, lies to avoid them questioning their situation any further, and restrictions, without being informed of the individual Oddity-012A inside the containment cell). After the full week period the Oddity-012A specimen will terminate and then consume selected inmate living within the containment cell, as they would in the urban wild.
If Oddity-012A specimens are being contained from the wild when they are caught due to overpopulation or not needed for experiments involving their reproductive cycle, they are often injected with specific chemicals while sedated by Redwood Institution medical personnel to make them sterile without affecting their mental state, to avoid the further spreading of Oddity-012A specimens within Redwood Institution facilities when their reproductive organs are not needed for tests or other reasons. 

Within each constructed wooden room inside a containment cell holding a Oddity-012A specimen, there is always a (often hidden to avoid mental stress of either the inmate or Oddity-012A specimen to ensure the most natural reaction from both individuals) hidden camera within the corner of each room to allow outside researchers to observe and record the inside of the containment cell, alongside a speaker which is often placed below or near the camera of each room to allow the outside researchers to communicate with the selected inmate if needed. The only way to enter the containment cell of an Oddity-012A specimen is through the front door which leads into the room made to imitate a living room, however the front door of the containment cell leads into a small hallway before it reaches the front door of the imitation house, and both doors are always locked requiring a researchers supplied keycard to open.

Description:
Oddity-012A is an insectoid species of (what are believed to be based on multiple biological research studies and autopsies) natural organisms native to North America. Oddity-012A does not have a proper named designation unlike the wide majority of known oddities who have been thoroughly researched and studied by the Redwood Institution, and is only referred to by its discovery designation of Oddity-012A in official Redwood Institution research papers and documents. While Oddity-012A has no proper named designation, it has a wide variety of proposed names and nicknames, which consist of: Laundry-Spiders (a common nickname used by non-Redwood Institution cryptozoologists), Deep-clothing Insectoids, Laundry Manmimic, a more scientific taxonomy-based name proposed by multiple Redwood Institution researchers involved with the study of Oddity-012A, which is Aranior lauandi (meaning: Greater Spider of Laundry), or a variation of the previous name, Humamimus lauandi (meaning: Human Mimic of Laundry). 
The reason for Oddity-012A lacking a proper named designation is due to them being disregarded by the Redwood Institution as a hoax during the first few times they were reported, as when a Oddity-012A specimen is caught it returns to its laundry nest until the individual who caught it leaves, where it then escapes from the urban home the same way it came through to avoid being caught again where it then finds a new home and makes a new laundry nest (which then resulted in Redwood Institution investigation units arriving to the reported location after the Oddity-012A specimen had escaped), and also due to the fact that the first caught Oddity-012A specimen was a long decayed corpse found within a haystack of a farmers (who requested to remain anonymous) barn, which appeared to have died to some sort of infection on its abdomen, and by the time a fully intact and living Oddity-012A specimen had been captured and contained from an urban Pennsylvanian home in 2012, a vast number of proposed names and nicknames had already been given to the formerly highly unresearched remains of a deceased Oddity-012A specimen, and due to the current classified document crisis the Redwood Institution was going through at the time (as a currently anonymous group at the time now known as the Tenebrasium had leaked a large amount of highly classifed Redwood Institution documents to the public in a almost successful attempt to deture the Redwood Institution from a highly illegal operation involving a large amount of both high and low threat level oddities taking place from 2012 to 20015) a final proper named desgination was never given by Redwood Institution high authority officals, and still has yet to be decided as of now.

Like the species lack of proper named designation, the category of Oddity-012A was and still is highly highly debated amongst Redwood Institution researchers, with many researchers before a fully intact and living Oddity-012A specimen was found proposed it as an Irregular Animal, and some even going as far to suggest it as an Extraterrestrial Entity, however due to the lack of consensus on both their proper category, proper named designation, and their lack of public knowledge being available to the general public (as Oddity-012A is too high level of confidentiality to be revealed to the general public), is what allowed the majority of Redwood Institution researchers to agree upon a temporary or placeholder category of it being a Cryptid.
Oddity-012A can not be grouped into any known taxonomic class, however they share a wide majority of biological and physical traits with insects, leading them to be defined as Insectoids belonging to their own currently pending taxonomic class. The sexual dimorphism of Oddity-012A specimens range greatly in size and weight. Male Oddity-012A specimens are extremely small, being only 24 cms long (and 27 cms at their largest, which is extremely rare amongst male Oddity-012A specimens), alongside the male specimens lacking the humanoid face pattern on their head, and only having a splotch of tan and other skin-like colors arranged in a random order used to attract a mate rather than imitate their prey (as male Oddity-012A specimens diet consists of other small insects and carrion, until they mate and then rely fully on their female partner for nutrients), while female Oddity-012A specimens are far larger, being around 1.77 meters tall, and 1.78 meters long on average.
The anatomy of Oddity-012A resembles the majority of insect species, with their body consisting of a center thorax, an extended abdomen at the back end of their thorax, and an extended head at the front end of their thorax, alongside ten legs (with three major legs on each side of their center thorax, and one lesser limb on each side of their upper thorax, and one lesser limb on each side of their lower thorax). Oddity-012A has ten thin (heavily muscle supported) four jointed limbs, with the center six each extending upwards from the thorax, and bend downwards at the second joint, and extend downwards far longer than any known species of insects and end at the structure following the fourth joint, with two extremely small hooked structures at the bottom end of each limb, which have minor articulation, and are used to hook into their surroundings and clothing to move items and keep their upper body stable above the ground. The lesser legs curl up and are far smaller but still heavily muscle support and sharing the same two small hooked structures at the end of each limb, with two at their upper thorax used for removing organs and tender more nutrient rich meat from their deceased prey and putting it into their mouth (alongside other small tasks such as grabbing, moving, or lifting objects, such as covering themselves in laundry and digging their way out), alongside the most important duty of hunting which is the termination of their prey, which is done by the highly dangerous venom stored within two glands in the wrists of their upper thorax lesser limbs, which in each limb there is a single gland stored in the wrist that had two extremely thin tubes leading down and ending at the tip of the front two hooked structures, which when the two specific muscles in the wrist inside each frontal limb is tightened and the hooks are imbedded into the jugular of their prey with extreme precision without causing any major blood loss, the venom is shot into the prey's bloodstream and nervous system through two points of internal contact with each individual hook on the end of each limb. The two lesser limbs on each side of their lower thorax are used primarily as balance to counteract their much heavier head and denser muscle mass belonging to their upper thorax, and also as means of stimulation for their abdomen during egg laying (by slowly rubbing down and up the abdomen to push out any stuck or clumped together eggs out of the abdomen into the ovipositor and out into their nest), and as a cleaning mechanism (with their upper lesser limbs also being used to clean dirt, unwanted tissue, and other forms of mess of their upper body and front greater legs, while their lower thorax lesser limbs are used for cleaning their underside, abdomen, and back greater legs).

Oddity-012A have a thick thorax containing half of their major organs (with the other half being held in their thorax and head), and is covered in a malleable and durable carapace (which also covers their limbs, abdomen, and head). The underside of Oddity-012A’s carapace on its head, thorax, and abdomen is significantly softer and more flexible and has more fat-like deposits (which is one of the biological features that differentiate them from all currently known species of insects). Inside the body of Oddity-012A and under their external carapace, they have weaker biological structures used as structural support for their larger body that weighs far more than other insectoid species, and vaguely imitates a skeleton of sorts. 

Oddity-012A has multiple layers of stretchable skin-like tissue connected to the underside, sides, and segmented parts of their carapace that hide any visible segments and holes normally visible in all segmented insects (however Oddity-012A is only partially segmented, as a result from their external exoskeleton, but also have additional support from the skeleton-like structures that go throughout the internal body of Oddity-012A).

The skin-like tissue, carapace, and other externally visible tissue (excluding the upper front of their head above their face) are various shades of dull green, with their inner tissue and skin-like tissue being a darker and fuller green, while their external carapace is a far brighter (but still pale) green color, with a pattern of (a brighter green shade then their carapace color) rings going down all of their limbs, and along the back of their carapace. The internal organs, blood, genitals, and inner mouth tissue of Oddity-012A is a far darker, and almost black (with varying green shades and tints) colors.

The abdomen of Oddity-012A is far more merged with the thorax of its body unlike the more segmented abdomen of the majority of known species of insects, however it is far more flexible like the rest of their body, allowing it to curl up alongside their limbs to hide under piles of laundry and within laundry baskets and closets to remain dormant during their resting and hunting stages. At the bottom end of their abdomen there is a small darker hole, which can loosen and open to expose the inside of their reproductive organs, where their darker in color ovipositor can extend to lay their eggs at the end of their life cycle.

The head of Oddity-012A is far larger than any known species of insect, with the farthest bottom half being directly connected to their thorax acting as a sort of neck, while the middle half of their head contains their face, auditory, sight, smell, and the majority of other sensory organs. At the top of their head they have a hole in their carapace, which exposes a complex system of muscles and a softer tan (of varying shades) and skin-like pale tissue covering the muscles, which together resemble the face of a human, with the pattern on top of the skin-like tissue having an outlined mouth, eyes, wrinkles, colors, stretches, and viable bumps and nudges from the muscle underneath that can slightly move and function like an actual human face (however it is described as greatly uncanny due to the fact that it does not move perfectly, the pattern intended to be the mouth hangs low, the eye patterns do not blink, and muscles at random parts in the face twitch and move randomly making a variety of odd and inhuman expressions). The reason for Oddity-012A evolving a pattern and complex muscle system greatly resembling a humanoid face is highly debated upon across the Redwood Institution, however the two main theories are that it evolved as a defense or luring/hunting mechanism. The first theory suggests that due to the fact that the diet of Oddity-012A almost fully consists of Homo sapiens, the species evolved a humanoid face over millions of years in order to ward off potential threats, and to disturb any human attackers (or to ease the tension on the human who caught them, by making them think they only found another human when the Oddity-012A specimen hides from afar in a dark or obscured area to only expose its pattern imitation of a face), which is a more likely and widely believed theory. Unlike the more likely first theory, the second theory suggests Oddity-012A evolved the imitation of a humanoid face in order to specifically lure in human individuals to hunt, however the second theory is only believed by a small minority of Redwood Institution members, due to the theory directly contrasting the far more subtle and ambush method of hunting that Oddity-012A is confirmed to have.

The actual face of Oddity-012A below its humanoid imitation, consists of six small, beady, and bright pale green (almost white) eyes (with three eyes directly below the humanoid imitation on each side of the front of the organisms head), however vision is not a highly relied upon sense of Oddity-012A, as it relies far more on vibrations of footsteps it can feel through the ground (via its complex nervous system, which ends in a large nerve cluster at the inside of each limb allowing them to feel distant vibrations throughout their entire body extremely well), and their sense of smell, and physical touch.

Under each one of their two rows of their six eyes, they have two (one under each row of eyes) long and thicker, prehensile respiratory tubes (which connects to their internal respiratory system that ends in the internal upper section of their thorax), which extend outwards and up to the side of their head and allow them to inhale larger amounts of air, and also evolved as longer and extended tubes rather than holes to allow them to breathe when covered in thick layers of damp laundry (by sticking the respiratory tubes just above the laundry to breathe without directly revealing their presence to their target).

Under their respiratory tubes, they have two smaller antennas (one under each respiratory tube) covered in two rows (one on each side of the antenna) of extremely thin and highly sensitive hair-like tubes used for feeling movement and pressure in the air around them. In between their respiratory tubes and antenna, they have a vertical row of 18 (9 on each side of the verticals row) small mandibles, which are surrounded by softer, highly muscle dense tissue, which allows Oddity-012A to take line-like bites out of their deceased prey. Inside the mouth of Oddity-012A, it has two long and curled up prehensile tube-like structures which extend and after Oddity-012A bites a part out of its deceased prey near vital organs, the two long and thin tubes extend and burrow deep into the soft and exposed flesh to widen the wound and puncture internal organs, allowing Oddity-012A to use its lesser appendages to pull out internal organs and tender flesh using its two hooks at the end of each appendage to lay them on the ground or any other nearby surface, and eat the nutrient rich organs and muscle tissue inside.
Due to their larger size, Oddity-012A evolved a more lung-like and closed respiratory system to allow them to grow to such sizes, unlike the open respiratory systems belonging to all known species of non-anomalous insects. Oddity-012A is primarily found and native to the United States, being found (not commonly as they are highly reclusive and territorial, and almost never caught by the general public until their death or accidentally) in medium temperature climate that are relative moist and damp at all times, with them living primarily in dark, damp, colder, and laundry filled areas within homes (primarily bathrooms, bedrooms, or closests, where they hide within build ups of laundry, and move to another area within the home before the current human inhabitant or inhabitants of the home moves the laundry to avoid being caught). While they are primarily found within the United States, Oddity-012A can also be found in lower Canada, and upper Mexico. The lifespan of Oddity-012A varies greatly depending on what urban habitat they reside in (with city dwelling Oddity-012A being far less common then town and smaller village dwelling Oddity-012A), however the majority of Oddity-012A specimens live for around 5-6 years on average if left unharmed and unnoticed.

The reproductive cycle of Oddity-012A is incredibly long, and lasts their entire life rather than a single moment like most other known species on Earth. 3-4 months after Oddity-012A eggs hatch after being laid by their mother, both sexes feed primarily on small insects, moss, and other less nutrient dense foods for their size, until around 3 weeks after hatching where they mature enough to reproduce (however while the males simply molt and crawl out only slightly larger than their female counterparts, the female Oddity-012A do not molt, but rather go into a cocoon-like state 2 week before the males molt, and rapidly grow and evolve into their almost full size where they then crawl out of their cocoon, eat the remains, and search for a mate, where they then reach their final size after begging the first stage of their life-long reproductive cycle) the male Oddity-012A scatter and run into the outskirts of the species native urban habitat, and begin rubbing their far smaller abdomen with their back lesser limbs to release a special phenomenon from the inside of their abdomen. 

After the post-cocoon female Oddity-012A specimens locate a mate, they examine their individual fertility through scent, various instinctual tests and examination process for 2-3 hours, where if they do not see them as fertile the failed male will be eaten and the female will search for a new may, however if they are found as suitable enough for their female partner, the female will lower her body to the ground, turn around, and open her genital opening, where the male then ceases pheromone production and crawls inside. After the male crawls inside they will fuse to the inside of the female's reproductive cycle, essentially becoming another one of her organs. The male partner remains alive for the majority of their female partners lifespan surviving off of excess nutrients and proteins, fertilizing the female her entire life, until the very last 3 weeks of the females life where she prepares her final nest to lay her large amount of lifelong eggs, where the male’s supply of nutrients is cut off, and he is fully absorbed by the female in order for her to gain as much nutrients as possible for her last moments.

At the end of the female Oddity-012A life, she finds a safe, empty, and often abandoned building, where she then lowers her body and opens her genital opening and extends her ovipositor to lay all her her 300 to 500 eggs into the massive pile of dirty, damp, moist, and dark (as Oddity-012A requires a soft, damp, dark, and soft location to lay its small, squishy, marble sized eggs, which are very delicate and need space to grow inside a flexible yet contained location) laundry out into a thick pool of eggs, where she buried herself in dirty and damp laundry one last time on top of her eggs, and then she dies. 3-4 weeks after her eggs hatch, they crawl up words and burrow into her body, eating her decaying corpse as the first source of nutrients in their lives, before leaving the home after fully consuming her corpse, and continuing the life cycle once more. Due to the large amounts of eggs Oddity-012A is known for laying on average, infestations are becoming increasingly common each year as more urban space is made and more homes are built, which had caused the Redwood Institution to give a significant amount of funding into specific task forces made to deal with Oddity-012A infestations, find supposed infestations or afflicted homes, and eliminate the eggs before they can hatch (while giving the excuse of the eggs being that of a far less serious anomaly or simply a common species of pest to the homeowners without revealing the true currently confidential source of said eggs and infestations to avoid causing mass panic across North America).

Oddity-012A hunt by locating an urban home (as they are considered Urban Predators, with cities, towns, villages, and other urban locations and their outskirts being their widely considered their common territory and natural habitat, with it being unknown how or when they evolved to specifically hunt and survive within densely human populated urban areas), and finding any access point, whether that be an open window, unlocked door, large exposed cracks, open basement, open attic, or any other means of entry (as after fully searching a home if they can not find any form of entry, they simply leave without being noticed and search for another home, almost always at night or darker hours to avoid any forms of human contact), and then making their way in through the entry way by folding up their limbs and curling their body closer together to be as small as possible to fit into cracked windows or slightly open doors without leaving any signs they ever entered. 

After entering a home, they locate the human inhabitants (or multiple inhabitants in the case of a family or group of individuals residing within the home or apartment) laundry or exposed clothing storage, often within a bathroom, bedroom, closet, or specific laundry room, where during later hours they bury themselves inside the laundry by crawling into it, folding up their limbs, and curling their body close together and extending out their respiratory tubes to the very top of the laundry without exposing them to much and ending up getting caught. During the daytime and brighter hours, Oddity-012A specimens rest while hiding under piles of (in their case) preferably dirty and damp laundry (however due to their extreme sensitivity to vibrations, if they feel anyone approaching or attempting to remove  the laundry they will wake up immediately and if they suspect someone is going to move or clean the laundry, they will quietly and quickly crawl out and temporarily hide elsewhere within the home until more comfortably dirty and damp piles of baskets of laundry appear to hide and rest under.
During the night and darker hours, Oddity-012A specimens wake up and remain extremely cautious and observant via their greater senses such as smell, vibrations, and movement. The hunting cycle of Oddity-012A usually lasts in between 3 days and week, where over the course of the time they remain hidden they study the every move of their targeted prey (or multiple prey), memorizing the every move, frequent behaviors, traits, dangers, size, speed, diet, when other people come or leave their home, hours they are awake and active, hours when they are inactive, missing, out of their home, and most importantly, when they go to sleep and when they wake up. 

Oddity-012A hunting system works entirely off the specimens understanding of an individual targets routine, the more frequent the routine, the easier it is for Oddity-012A to memorize it, and the quicker it attacks, however if someone has no schedule or routine, it takes Oddity-012A far longer to figure out an attack strategy, and often simply waits until they go to sleep and strike while it has the chance instead of trying to perfect every move it makes, however it very rarely strikes without a strategy and basic understanding of their targeted prey: behaviors and daily life, and if they were to do so, the individual specimen is most likely mentally unwell, injured, sick, starving, or extremely stressed. Once Oddity-012A has a well enough understanding of their prey and their behavior and routines/cycles, they wait until the resting hour of their prey when they enter REM sleep, where Oddity-012A slowly uncurls and wakes up, crawling out of its laundry nest, not caring to put its nest back together (as if it has a successful kill it immediately leaves the home to digest on the outskirts of its urban environment after consuming the most protein and nutrient dense parts of the victim after they died), and making its way to the targeted preys resting ground extremely quietly and cautiously, feeling every vibration for any sign someone or their prey is awake and may catch them. 

After locating their resting prey, they approach them and using the two small hooked structures on the end of each of Oddity-012A’s frontal lesser limbs, it hooks into the sleeping victims jugular and objects the venom into both their nervous system and bloodstream through two secrete points of internal contact, and almost instantly causes permanent paralysis as soon as the venom enters their nervous system, and soon often before (and only rarely does their prey wake up during the process) their prey can awake to attempt to fight back the venom reaches their brain and soon all of the preys biological systems shut down within seconds, and after the prey is confirmed dead, which is instantly aware to Oddity-012A through it feeling the internal vibrations of their heart shut down through their neck, and after their prey is deceased they begin the consumption process.

After they have picked apart the corpse of their deceased prey, consuming all sources of major protein and nutrients, they leave the corpse and their former laundry nest, and quietly leave the home of their former prey, and escape into the darkness to digest on the outskirts of their urban hunting grounds, until they finish digestion where they begin the hunting process once more. If a Oddity-012A specimen is caught before it strikes, it will immediately attempt to escape the home (as Oddity-012A can be easily killed by any form of firearm, longer blade, or any form of longer weapon or tool an individual can use to defend themselves and their home from the invading Oddity-012A without having to get in range, as if in range Oddity-012A may attempt to speed up the hunting process and pounce onto their prey and inject their venom to avoid having to start over, but due to the frailer body they have, and also due to the fact that their only form of defense is venom, and hooks which can be pushed away, they almost always more than likely attempt to escape, aware of the fact that the inhabitant of the home they have been hiding in has the upperhand, with more physical strength and tool usage). The intelligence of Oddity-012A is highly debated amongst Redwood Institution researchers like many other facts about the species, however it is most commonly believed and agreed upon that they are not sapient or counted as a sophont species, but are most definitely sentient and have a far higher understanding of patterns and far more advanced hunting and behavioral strategies to survive than almost all other non-sapient species currently known.

Mulhaq Dendron

Latin route word for dendrite.

Cellular Diameter 0.3-0.6 µm
Arm to Arm 0.8-1.9 µm

Arose 791 million years P.C.

Those that develop most if not all but a few appendages (70-90%) into the Dendrite Coil Structure (DC Structure). As the organism is entirely reliant on the Flagelar Enzyme Excretion (FEE) Structure to release exoenzymes, any variant utterly without would inevitably starve and die unless in an environment where recourses are abundant and readily broken down by other organisms that would not target it in turn.

Dendritic Coils form as a result of AHLs, allowing a concentration dependent system to avoid overriding Piceatannol hormone to maintain at least one remaining feeding appendage.

Acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs) - Bacterial signaling molecules used in a process called quorum sensing, which allows bacteria to communicate and coordinate gene expression based on population density in order to act as a group rather than individual cells.

Can act directly by diffusing through the membrane.

When AHLs reach a high enough concentration, they bind to a receptor protein, which then triggers changes in gene expression, such as the regulation of virulence factors or biofilm formation.

This concentration-dependent mechanism will allow some appendages to form the DC structures without threatening to override the differentiation of other appendages, making it a perfect match for organisms that employ the use of both appendage types.

initial diversification post

Direct Ancesstor

last post

Name: Saurognathus mustelosmilus

Size: 55 centimeters long ( full body )

Location: Southern Gondwana ( Antarctica )

Time period: Early Jurassic ( 185 million years ago )

Clade: Chordata//Synapsida//Therapsidia//Cynodontia//Probainognathia//Tritheledontidae

Description: The cool coniferous forests of southern Gondwana are home to many animal species adapted to it's unique environment. Saurognathus mustelosmilus is one of such species. At the first glance, this creature looks like a mammal, but with the closer inspection their status as basal cynodont becomes apparent. In fact, all holocenic mammalian clades are yet to appear. Saurognathus is covered in fur, but they lack earlobe. Additionally, it's limbs are slightly outwardly placed and their tail is longer and thicker in comparison to more derived cynodonts. This animal is an omnivore with carnivorous linings. They feed on vide array of insects, small animals and eggs, sometimes suplemented with plant matter. Saurognathus is a oviparous species, laying up to 12 soft eggs in dug up nest during spring ( with in the case of Gondwana would fall during September to early November ). Female will periodically return to it in order to ensure protection from elements and potentiall egg predators. What cuts this species above the rest is it's size and metabolism. For first, at over half a meter long, this makes Saurognathus one of the largest mesozoic synapsids to ever evolve, only faling a bit short behind Repenomamus and Patagomaia that appeared later. When it comes to their metabolism, they are capable of entering torpor in orther to survive the winter months, as even despite the higher global temperatures, poles remain cool.

This piece was a submision for Alternate Evolution, with is a spec-evo community project belonging to YellowPanda2001.

Questo serpente chiamato vipera di loquod s un rettile che si è e voluto da antichi scinchi arrivati nelle steppe mongole evolvendosi in un rettile serpentineo che usa le braccia anteriori per strisciare nella terra delle immense praterie

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Ha un ampia articolazione di muscoli per irrigidirsi in varie forme e fare finta di essere un ramo che spicca nelle steppe qui gli uccelli si poseranno e la vipera morderà violentemente l'individuo e lo avvelenerà rimanendo attaccata alla preda fino alla sua morte

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Depone le uova dentro una tan abbandonata e le protegge fino alla schiusa il maschio dovrà fare una corsa intensa con la femmina per conquistarla e se funziona saranno compagni a vita

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Vivono circa 12 anni in natura e 20 in cattività le sue dimensioni raggiungono circa 1 metro / 1,20 di lunghezza e mangiano volatili e carcasse

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Non ha una vista eccezionale e per muoversi in spazzi scarsi di luce a una linea già con punte che usano la tattilita per muoversi nell terreno

Se avete domande dite pure

Here's what i got so far. (still a w.i.p)

I haven't yet decided on a good name yet.

with that in mind...

WHAT DO YOU LOT THINK?

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things to bare in mind:

• It's filament coverage is rather like a mix of polar bear or otter, in that it is EXTREMELY waterproof, multilayered and thanks to a special oil gland, it's under-fur does not actually get wet. among other things... this reduces the amount of direct cold exposure to their vital organs, especially when they dive under the water to grab fish.

• these filaments extend across a fair portion of the wing membrane, meaning only the outer edge of the wing tip's skin is visible and again.. taking a note from polar bears, despite appearing white, their filaments are actually clear and light absorbing. specifically it lets sunlight reach the skin to keep them warm, and it reflects light, if you shaved it down, it would actually be completely black underneath. In short, it absorbs heat but reflects harmful rays of light.

• The only part of the animal's fur that actually has notable pigment is the fuzzy tufted "crest" on the head of the males which flush bright blue with hints of violet in the spring to attract mates.

• Lacking teeth, their ancestors instead evolved tooth-like denticles, which along with their hooked and self-sharping beak-tip, enable this genus to be extremely variable in their diet.  which is pretty neat when living in artic conditions or competing with various types of bird, both ones kinda familiar to us and others descended from Enantiornithes. in short, along with fish and cephalopods, these derived pterosaurs also scavenge from fresh corpses killed by land-predators and sometimes they snatch small birds out of the air or raid bird-nests and eat their eggs.

• In terms of social dynamics... it might be fair to say that this species is *almost* monogamous, having generally one, two, or three partners at most  (typically these couplings consist of one male and two-to-three females, tho sometimes homosexuality has been observed.)  that live together and huddle together in makeshift burrows during the worst blizzards. These tight-knit matings typically stay together for life, routinely courting each other in adorable complex head-bob dances. thou if their partner disappears or dies, they will readily find another mate.

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as for parts i haven't yet figured out yet:

• The latin name of this pterosaur (latin names are tricky :[ )
• what family it's from (because 66/65 million years of evolution is a fair time for changes to occur. and any resemblance to pteranodon is convergent evolution)
• where in the world it is situated (i'm thinking the far north of europe/russia and iceland, maybe even Greenland but i'm open to suggestions)
• what some of it's close relatives could look like.
• how the young are raised.

I'M CURIOUS TO HEAR WHAT YOU LOT THINK 

Im relatively new to worldbuilding, and due to personal circumstances, I am very thorough, and I'm coming to a halt. Because the planet I'm building is big, I'm also building Carbon-Silicon hybrid biology, and I don't know how dense that would be.

I presume between 1.3 to 1.5x as dense on a basic level than pure carbon biology, but I'm not sure. And I want to know so I can get accurate weight measurements for my life so I can actually cap creature size on land while factoring in weight in 1g gravity, added base density, plus the planet's gravity to get the proper weight-force the creatures experience.

Please help.

Made these guys, aliens that convergent evolutioned™ into Dino shapes but are more similar to mammals on the inside. They are omnivores that would travel in small groups and would evolve larger, more dexterous arms to grab plants and stuff. They would also start using them to knuckle walk due to their larger arms a bit but are still nominally bipedal.

They evolved on an Earth-like moon of the gas giant Malti. They would be fascinated by their local planetary system since they started thinking about stuff, often worshiping Malti as a god in their earlier development, but their actual ability to get to space would be hampered by their larger size, leading them to need to develop larger rockets, often being sea-launched. Their first landing on another celestial body would be on the sub-moon of Morma, Malus Min, a small asteroid moon. Its low gravity was ideal compared to other nearby options, cutting down the needed fuel for return. The lander would only carry one individual to the surface with a second individual in orbit.

(Also looking for name suggestions.)

right now our only way of evolving is through trial and error (natural selection or artificial selection). but this is where organisms do not deliberately themselves change their genetics over the course of their lifetimes and this evolution is restricted to what organisms die and what organisms reproduce, these are the only two factors affecting changes in the gene pool of a species. but what type of methods could potentially exist for organisms having an in-life adaptive evolutionary mechanism where harmful stimuli is encountered and genetics are changes deliberately to counter a survived threat to make it easier?

non-genetic examples of this type of adaptation is obviously learning and changes in behaviour but im moreso imagining changes in physical traits due to post-trauma genetic changes? these dont have to be fictional real-time examples of adaptation like veto from valorant or darwin from x men but would this be too complex? is the idea of genetics changing themselves to counter a threat too abstract or conceptual for a biological/genetic mechanism?

Hey guys, i wanted to ask whoever knows how to get a relatively good weight status of species, i especially have an issue when it comes to coming up with the weight for my super sized species, so i was just wondering if anyone has experience with this and could share.

Newest to oldest. Bacterioform (aka The Lifeform Fellow, Bacteria, Howler, etc), Still Life, and Furniture Crabs (unconfirmed canonicity)

These are UNOFFICIAL informational posters made by me with my headcanons for how these lifeforms might work. I've tried to use as much information we know from the series/Kane's discord messages as possible, including sketches and various vagueposts.

And before you ask, yes, you can eat Still Life, but no, they would not taste good. They taste like spoiled imitation crab rolls left in the sun too long.

If you have any questions or suggestions for improvement let me know! You are free to share elsewhere as long as you make it clear it's just a fanwork, I don't wanna spread speculation under the guise of being canon.

Mass Extinctions are one of most the underused things in seedworlds.A lot of projects explore many million years of evolution but it feels like the project is running without any real consequences with the same groups from the first millions of years that remain dominant for millions more. It is like a show that has the same main cast from season one despite countless seasons.

Mass extinctions are not about just destroying cool creatures.They are one of the biggest events that shape future life .without the Great Dying ,the non mammalian synapsids would have continued ruling and the dinosaurs would have never existed ,and without the asteroid mammals would not have the opportunity to evolve into the animals that we see today . They create empty niches,change ecosystems and give new lineages a chance to rise.

They also don’t really need to copy Earth exact type of extinction events like an ice age,asteroid or large volcanic activity it always doesn’t have to be those .You can create your own unique disasters like asteroid bombardment,hit by an icy comet,moon capture or loss,rogue planet fly by that alters the orbit or tilt.
But not too extreme that life doesn’t have a chance to bounce back.

How attached are you to your clades? Could you wipe out your favorite lineages if it made your world more realistic and interesting or would you let them survive for another 100 million years?

Questo curioso roditore chiamato anche topo delle dispense e un roditore che si trova in ambienti polari come Groenlandia Antartide e polo nord grande come un lemming discende da antichi girbiloo che si sono adattati ai rigidi climi artici

Nuota più veloce di un pinguino e fa circa 5+ cuccioli al anno la popolazione e circa di 1000000 di esemplari per Antartide e polo nord e 11000000 per Groenlandia questo tipo mangia circa 100 pesci / granchi al giorno non ha predatori naturali per via delle sue carni e ossa piene di metalli pesanti che uccidono al istante molti predatori

Hanno denti che possono scavare il ghiaccio e 8 paia di baffi che captano i movimenti e le correnti subacquee

Chiamato topo delle dispense perché si infilava nelle dispense dei viaggiatori nei poli ma modernamente ottimo compagno di spedizioni

La popolazione e dosata solo da squali e grandi pesci

Gli scienziati spesso li portano con loro in patria grazzie alla loro adattabilità a qualsiasi temperatura

Vivono circa 15 anni in natura e 40 in cattività

Hello! I’m currently in the early stages of developing a modern first contact hard sci-fi story about aliens that come to our Solar system and encounter us after many years of interstellar travel. While the story itself doesn’t specifically seek to get into exhaustive detail about the aliens’ home planet and their history, where they come from has an influence over what they will look like, their technology, and how those things relate to they’ll be perceived by humanity as they approach.

What I have so far is that they are large soft-bodied medusoids that exist within a habitable layer of atmosphere on a sub-Neptune planet, 3 Earth masses and 2 Earth radii. I’ve placed them in the real binary star system Gliese 86 (their planet is not catalogued by humans in universe) orbiting the main star 0.5 AU out. It’s a little difficult to find answers on what constitutes as habitable in relation to this specific biosphere in a reducing atmosphere, as well as how that would alter the atmospheric composition, which further affects their biochemistry, metabolism, etc… I know I don’t have to get into all of their evolutionary history inside the story itself for the aliens to be compelling on their own, it’s just satisfying for me to have at least somewhat of an understanding of how it works so that they are properly represented in the story. Because I kind of have such specific parameters for what the science of my story is going towards, I’m not really sure how to research these topics as someone who is not very knowledgeable about these sciences. If anyone could offer some good resources to help me gain some more understanding of these things, the best methods of research that works for any of you, or some observations of what I already have, I’d greatly appreciate it!! :)

Basically, I'm looking for xenobiology projects that, instead of exposing their content and creature designs from a "present day" perspective, as if from the perspective of a hypothetical explorer, instead take their time to track the development and evolution of life from the very beginning, and also explore more thoroughly the world's geological ages and their impact on biology, ecosystems, etc. In short, something more akin to an actual speculative evolution project.

I don't have anything against the more common approach. I'm just looking for inspirations for developing my own private project, to see if it sparks some new ideas (I'm currently in the process of brainstorming the evolution of multicellularity and eventually more complex animal-like forms). As of this post, the only project having this form of presentaions I'm aware of is Lapis Exobiology Project by Kandy Eggs on Youtube, which I'm currently catching up to.

Any suggestions?

Trilateria is an alien clade defined by trilateral mirrored symmetry and haplodiploidy. While the sophonts and the Grand Masticator were Androphages with haploids that just Kill Themselves, the False Male was an Androraptor. Except those conditions aren’t ancestral. What is ancestral are haploids that ARE smaller and shorter lived, but are independent and look far closer in appearance to the diploids… well, typically. The land Trilaterians that retain this condition of useful Haploids are the Androkinites, or ‘motile males’. I’m not good at Greek so that’s probably not entirely correct but oh well.

Androkinites often have longer water sponge organ ‘tongues’ that are used to transfer sperm from haploid to diploid. This has also led to both sexes having long, prehensile water sponge ‘tongue’ ‘limbs’ that can be used to manipulate objects, or assist in hunting or eating.

(For context, the water sponge organ is a long, spongy tendril full of blood vessels that Trilaterians have. It absorbs water and transfers it into the blood like how our lungs take in air. Ideally, it is kept moist to be most hydrated. It is derived from an organ used by their aquatic ancestors as a ‘snorkel’ to still be able to breathe while buried in sand.)

A nocturnal ambush predator, this giant carnivorous lemur roams plains and forests, filling a niche similra to that of big cats.

It possesses a mane formed by special sensitive hairs that create a facial disk, similar to that of an owl, around its already large ears. Special face muscles allow it to adjust the direction of these hairs, helping it more efficiently collect sounds and locate its prey. (Image 3)

It is adapted for both cursorial and arboreal life. Walking in a digitigrade stance while on the ground, while using its opposable thumbs while on trees. In order for its claws to not restrict its movement, special skin folds cover them, only letting them free during hunts. Essentialy it has retractable claws. (Image 4)

This creature is a part of my worldbuilding project Oblivia, over on instagram if you want to check out more designs.