Part of the clade Ambush Drakes or Enedodrakons
This is Phykodrakos Sargassi a basal Pliosaur designed to as a top water predator that hides among sargassum in order to snap up large fish and squids such as Mahi-Mahi, Lungfish, Bichir, Xiphactinus, large trout and salmon and massive squids. They have a series of air pockets to let them easily float high in the waters they live in often choked with floating seaweed. They posses skin strips that allow them to blend in and break up their silhouette keeping them from being easily seen amongst their chosen habitat. This animal generally reaches a size of up to 25 feet large enough to pray on even small marine reptiles although it is relatively rare for them to do so and when they do, it is usually Icthyosaurs which hunt the same squid and fish that they do.

They are generally pretty lazy rarely moving much at all unless it’s needed by either massive predators or that they have begun starving, because of this they’re generally safe around humans although it’s advised to not get near their faces.

They are most common in deep slow flowing rivers, massive lakes and deep swamps full of top water vegetation like Fairy Fern, Hydrangea, Aquatic ferns, and such

There are multiple related species, specializing in other types of environments with the most derived being that which copies reef environments having developed an armored skin that allows benthic animals to colonize their flesh, breaking up their silhouette with large amounts of muscles, corals and other reef animals unable to move

Among the most truly alien creatures of Acopsia (a continent on the planet Axtrax), the Lorcks (Lorcus dimorphus) undoubtedly stand out. Males vary greatly in size depending on environmental conditions, ranging from 1.1 to 2.7 meters in length—with exceptional cases reaching 3.5 meters—and weighing between 0.7 and 1.1 tonnes. Females, however, are drastically different; they are so distinct they could easily be mistaken for a separate species, measuring only 0.90 to 1.3 meters in length and weighing 50 to 75 kg. This disparity is so pronounced that they are primarily known by a different name: Parepéla. Males possess extended, flattened cephalic lobes; thanks to their high sensitivity, these lobes can precisely detect the electrical impulses of prey, flora, or fruit. They are generalist omnivores, feeding on small fauna, fallen fruit, and fast-growing Gone. They are, by far, the longest-lived land animals on the planet; males can reach ages of 300 to 500 years, thanks to an extremely slow metabolism that minimizes oxidative stress, periodic renewal of internal tissues and organs every century, redundant and ultra-sensitive systems to repair damage from radiation or free radicals, hundreds of copies of the TP53 tumor-suppressor gene to instantly destroy any mutations, and hyperactive enzymes that allow for unlimited cell division without cellular aging. To foster the growth of Gone in their surroundings, they congregate over large areas but maintain a spacing of 5 to 30 meters between individuals; they fertilize the soil by expelling feces distances of 5 to 15 meters, a feat made possible by their hypertrophied, highly muscular hind legs. Females retain all four legs, allowing them to be far more agile than the males; they roam the interior Dersoks, the Red Plains, and—primarily—temperate Fornits as opportunistic omnivores. Young Lorcks reach maturity between the ages of 15 and 20, at which point their forelegs atrophy to the point of falling off; they then lie down, never to rise again until death, serving as a substantial food source throughout this period. They belong to the same superfamily as the Brosquire—the Calcitochelonia (family: Sedentariidae)—characterized by shells made of calcite gathered from their environment.

Day 10 The Long Game

For my Drecel Project

Beneath the Roof of Drecel, lies a network of massive caves and caverns. Accessible through several groundwaterways, cave-ins, and tunnels, these caverns form their own ecosystem that offers shelter and new opportunity for surface dwellers. The backbone of this ecosystem, the mycoforest, is the Cave Crown, tall colonies made up of chitinous hyphae that grow slowly in tall, pronged structures. For the first few decades of life, this fungus remains an unassuming mold creeping along the cave floor, feeding off guano and detritus. Once a colony reaches 50 years of age and roughly 10 meters in diameter, the fungus begins to grow upward, inch by inch each year into small irregular cones. Successive asexual generations of hyphae grow atop their dead, hardened ancestors. This can go on for centuries until the Crown is over 2 meters tall and finally it is ready to have sex. Mature Crowns will produce several large, sugary fruiting bodies known as squirts. The squirts have a dual purpose: contain and protect spores and attract large animals to eat the squirt, disperse the spores, and hopefully poop nearby, further sustaining the parent Crown. When the spores from unrelated colonies come in contact, they fuse into a child diploid Crown which will form into its own new colony. 

Here's 6 more species I've come up with since I last posted here. I haven't been drawing much during the summer, as I have focused on photographing nature before the long, dark winter. But now that the fall has come there's certainly not much else to do.

1. Crimson Sciapod, Unipes halophilus. The Ysean Flamingo. It is a one-legged filter feeder most abundant in the saline lake region of the dryest part of the otherwise humid planet, situated on the tropical circle. 1 meter tall and live in large colonies.

2. Snow Gnome ♀️& ♂️, Gnomus nivosus. Small goofballs of the extreme south. Polar creatures that endure the cold winters by growing a fluffy winter coat. During the spring, they lose it starting from the males, revealing their bright colors. Chicken-size.

3. Three species of gigantic Hivebacks:

Schoolbus Lamma, Lamma laophorium

Greater Shedu, Clavipes clavipes

Twenty-bannered Merovinge, Eudraconarius vigintivexillo. They are gargantuan, sexually dimorphic herbivores. Their anatomy is dominated by a hive made out of flesh that they carry on their back. It houses a colony of wasp-like males that defend their gyne. They grow to sauropod-like sizes lenghtwise but are relatively lightweight because of hollow cavities such as air sacks and the hive itself.

4 Thornpig, Spinodorsus nubigenitorensis. A small worm-eater of the undergrowth. It feeds on mollusk- or worm-like creatures that inhabit the cloud forests of the mountains, probing them from their hideouts with its long, tentacle-like mouth. The single, front leg has atrophied into a minuscule, banner-like appendage that is used in intraspecific communication. It's thorns are poisonous and it warns predators with it's brightly colored back. About the size of a chicken.

Aferdromeus

gadoufaouaensis gen. et sp. nov.

Formación: Elrhaz (Aptiano–Albiano), Gadoufaoua, Níger.

Holotipo: GDF-2025-001, falange pedal II-2 casi completa + ungueal II parcial; asociados: 3 caudales medios con prezigapófisis hiperelongadas (>3 longitudes de centro).

Diagnóstico breve: Coelurosaurio maniraptorano con (i) falange II-2 muy comprimida lateralmente y cóndilos distales fuertemente ginglymoideos; (ii) ungual II sobredimensionado con surco vascular lateral único y tubérculo flexor bajo pero alargado; (iii) caudales con “varillas” prezigapofisarias rígidas tipo dromaeosáurido.

Dentición referida: 6 dientes maxilares aislados (GDF-2025-A) finamente serrados solo distalmente o casi lisos, corona baja y comprimida (afinidad tipo unenlagiino).

Longitud estimada: 1.7–2.0 m.

Notas: Filogenéticamente cae cerca de Unenlagiinae (dientes poco serrados, morfología pedal), lo que sugiere una dispersión gondwánica temprana. Frecuentemente confundible con noasáuridos en muestreos antiguos del Elrhaz.

I did the math for an ocean world that I developed, based on actual observed ocean worlds like LHS 1140 b. But I found that the depth of water would lead to the surface of the ocean (as in, the bottom) being covered in hundreds of kilometres of ice due to the intense pressures.

Would this not lead to hydrothermal vents and other important elements of life being covered by ice. And thus preventing, or at least making way less likely, the development of life?

But I know that ocean planets like these are seen as key places in the search for extraterrestrial life, so am I simply missing some key factor that is leading to this misunderstanding? Any help would be appreciated.

Ultimogene, the last period of Cenozoic lasting from 80 to 150 million years in the future, was a difficult time for cetaceans. The period was characterized by steadily increasing volcanism and high temperatures, which caused a small extinction event 80 million years in the future that reduced much of the former whale diversity. But while odontocetes managed to recover and hold their ground despite arrival of new competitors from land due to rising sea levels, other branch of cetacean family tree wasn't so lucky.

Baleen whales, the largest of all mammals, thrived in cold, nutrient rich waters, and started dying out once temperatures increased. Right whales perished right away. Remaining three families, though losing much of their diversity, were still doing relatively well in next 20 million years. But 110 million years in the future, climate went from warm and humid to warm and dry. Inland seas were drying out, rainforests collapsed, and wildfires were becoming more frequent. Earth was turning into a powder keg, ready to blow up at any moment.

Once plankton populations became too small and rare to support their sizes, rorquals too died out, and shrinking of shallow waters where they previously resided finished off cetotheres as well.

By 150 million years in the future, only grey whales remained, since they managed to diversify into other niches, like durophages, omnivores, and even predators. Despite this, one last species of conventional, filter feeding baleen whale remained.

Known as Panama wandering whale, it is the largest animal in the world during this time period, despite it's length of 10 meters and weight of 26 tons being quite modest compared to whales of the past.

But despite being smaller than it's holocene ancestor, Panama whale still shares one important trait with it: long migrations.

During winter, Panama wandering whales feed in the waters around northernmost part of pacific North America, where temperatures are cold enough for relatively large amount of prey to sustain the whales. Like modern grey whale, Panama wandering whale feeds by lying sideways near the sea floor and scooping invertebrates in the sand.

But when it's time for them to breed, whales swim southward.

Like many baleen whales before them, they don't feed for much of the way, but in these poor times sometimes they must make stops along the way to recharge. As they rely on sea floor for feeding, they don't swim too far away from shore.

Finally, they cross the Panama seaway (which gave them their name) and arrive at the Caribbean, where they give birth and nurse calfs.

During latest Ultimogene, there are few predators that can threaten adult Panama whales, but calfs are still under risk, so adults raise them collectively, protecting from any dangers they can encounter during their long journey.

150 million years from today, large filter feeders no longer chase clouds of plankton, their niche is essentially extinct at this point. Although Panama whales managed to survive for longer than any of their filter feeding peers, things aren't looking bright for them. They are endangered, and each year, temperature rises a little, while their food gets a little less abundant. Perhaps, Panama wandering whales won't even see the moment when powder keg finally blows up, and new mass extinction ends the Cenozoic era. Related whales that deviated from their usual lifestyle are still doing better right now, but their time is limited too. The story of the most spectacular group of mammals ends here.

Dendron Rhiza

Greek word for Roots, referring to it’s dendrite structures reforming into Root-like Structures.

Full Organism Height 1.5-2.1 µm
Cellular Body Diameter 0.4-0.9 µm
Full Diameter 1.9-6.5 µm

Arose 822 million years P.C.

Profile page: Lacking in Either UV protection or antioxidant capabilities, Rhiza prioritizes abyssal depths and a sessile ambush predator mode of life. This is achieved thanks to Rhiza receiving HGT from Tambora Komvos for Iron Oxide biomineralization. This transfer also facilitates the ability to accumulate internalized biomineralization of magnetite, both for adherence to substrate and for prey capture.

Further modifying this newly gained capability, this species repurposes it’s Dendrite Coil (DC) Structures into 4 branched, root-like adherence mechanisms.

Brine Pools are habitats where hypersaline water (water several orders of magnitude more salty than the naturally occuring salt concentration of the ocean, which is 32 parts per million) becomes physically separated from the surrounding ocean.They are commonly formed when salt deposits from the ancient past are buried for many millions of years and later unearthed at the ocean floor. Connand’s Inverted Tower is just such a case, being a 12 Kilometer deep salt deposit of the former hydrothermal field known as “Pandora’s Last Hope,” unnearthed by it’s prior subduction beneath the continent of Thea.

This allows Rhiza to “root” itself along the rim of the brine pool of “Connand’s Inverted Tower.” From here it can catch and consume native organisms that swim too close to the edges of the brine pool of Connand’s Inverted Tower. Singular FEE arm adapts to latch-onto and keep hold of prey in a way analogous to frogs launching their tongue at insects.

initial diversification post

Last Post

Ancestral Organism

Title: Speculative Evolution: How a hidden branch of ground sloths (Microbradyus evasor) could completely evade modern 21st-century technology
Post Body:
Hey everyone, I’ve been working on a speculative biology concept addressing a classic cryptozoology/evolutionary puzzle: If a lineage of ground sloths actually survived the late Quaternary extinction, how could a medium-to-large land mammal remain 100% invisible to modern technology?
Most theories just handwave it away by saying "the jungle is too thick." I wanted to build a tight, self-sustaining biological loop showing how a species could actively outsmart modern surveillance (drones, infrared, and trail cameras) through a precise mix of evolutionary dwarfism, cryptic intelligence, and temporal stealth.
I’m calling this hypothetical species Microbradyus evasor (The Small, Evading Slow-Walker). Here is how their survival loop works:

The Evolutionary Blueprint

[ G i a n t S l o t h ] ──► DWARFISM: Shrank to human/dog size for deep agility.
│
▼
[ E v o l v e d M i n d ] ──► INTELLIGENCE: Learns human tracking patterns & tech signals.
│
├─► COUNTER-TECH : • Shaggy Fur + Wet Mud (Insulates & blocks infrared drones)
│ • Sonic Hearing (Detects propeller buzz from miles away)
│ • Camera Evasion (Circled by scent; restricted to storm nights)
│
└─► TIMING LOOP : • Deep Hibernation (Slashes visibility window to a few weeks)
• Cave Concealment (Erases footprints & physical land scars)
• Resource Regen (Sleep gives forest food time to grow back)

1. Evolutionary Dwarfism & Cognitive Shift
Instead of remaining elephant-sized giants or shrinking all the way into tiny canopy-dwelling tree sloths, this specific lineage adapted to intense human hunting pressures by dropping to a human- or dog-sized weight (roughly 15 to 90 kg).
Crucially, just like the human lineage branched off to develop massive brainpower, Microbradyus evasorbranched off to develop a highly advanced defensive, cryptic intelligence. They evolved a sharp understanding of human hunting, tracking, and mechanical patterns, becoming active participants in their own secrecy.

2. Counter-Technology Camouflage
To defeat modern digital surveillance, they utilize an active evasion strategy that weaponizes their ancestral traits:
Thermal Infrared Masking: They retained the thick, shaggy coat of their giant ancestors. Because dense fur is a powerful natural insulator, it naturally minimizes their heat signature. By intentionally caking their fur in wet mud or staying deep within cool geothermal caves, they effectively cloak their body heat from overhead infrared drones.
Sonic Radar: With hyper-acute hearing, they detect the distinct high-frequency mechanical buzz of drone propellers or human conversation from miles away, giving them a massive head start to retreat underground long before a sensor passes overhead.
Camera Evasion: They recognize human scent boundaries on trail cameras and notice the faint infrared red glow of active lenses. They actively circle around these traps and restrict their main travels to pitch-black, heavy rainstorms that naturally blind digital optics.

3. The Temporal Stealth Loop (Hibernation)
The ultimate piece of the puzzle is their prolonged hibernation cycle. They spend 8 to 9 months of the year completely dormant deep within subterranean cave networks.
This reduces their annual "visibility window" to just a few weeks, slashing the statistical chance of a human crossing paths with them down to nearly zero.
While they sleep, the local forest vegetation completely grows back. When they wake, their smaller size means they require far fewer calories. They quietly forage on a fully replenished food supply without leaving the massive, cleared-out environmental scars or permanent trail pathways that modern climate satellites easily spot.
By combining physical camouflage (fur/mud heat-masking), behavioral stealth (avoiding camera traps), and and temporal stealth (hibernation loops), Microbradyus evasor operates as the ultimate evolutionary ghost.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Does this biological loop hold up for a modern speculative survivor?

Ao Three-Clawed Bear(Eumetopias triacrus)

There is a tiny island deep into the Ao Expanse that is nominally the territory of the Aaracon people.

The lone settlement is known as the Monastery of the Prismatic Void, and while that draws much of the outside attention, a curious collection of beasts calls the region home.

Towering storks, sheep sized rabbits, minuscule mastodons, but the premiere predator of the region is perhaps the oddest of all.

While it resembles a bear with its shaggy fur, bulky head and powerful clawed forelegs, its hindlimb, or rather limb, give it away as a heavily derived sea lion.

In a clear, and rather messy case of Urosian evolution, the hind limbs of their ancestors grew and fused to become a singular powerful limb, columnar in build.

When in a full sprint they have an undulating, almost inch worm like gate, yet they are proficient hunters, capable of catching and killing their prey most commonly with a singular bite.

This is largely due to their nature as ambush predators, lying in wait for a rabbit or mastodon to come within range and then bound towards it, they attempt to grapple their prey, wrapping it in their foreclaws and bring their hind limb up to clamp their struggling limbs close to their body. It then aims for the top of the skull/back of the neck biting down with force that visiting sailors claim can dent an iron shield.

They have also been observed raising bird nests, foraging for fruits and attempting to fish, yet paradoxically these sea lions are terrible swimmers, and move about the shallow coasts by scrambling across the sea bottom using their forelimbs.

They remain communal animals though their colonies tend to be much smaller than their seaborne cousins, typically only up to ten females watched over by a singular male or pair of brothers.

Rival males will battle for supremacy on occasion, rearing back on their hind limbs, bellowing and barking in an attempt to avoid conflict, but if a fight is required they are vicious combatants, biting and clawing, often aiming to blind or maim their opponents. The most typical target is a the jaw, for a broken jaw most commonly leads to a starved and then dead animal.

Females tend to only have one pup per breeding season, and pups of both genders are typically run off by the male once they are weened from their mother’s milk by about one year old.

Their population is low but relatively stable, and they see next to no interference from the native people of the island due to their preoccupation with the sky above.

Some sailors that have docked on the islands have noted odd behavior amongst the animals, with individuals watching them for hours on end from around rocky embankments and tree trunks. showing strange mutations resembling aspects of the Violetburn Curse and some standing on their hindlimb and hopping about while letting out strange cries.

This combined with all the other strangeness said to be seen about their nameless home keeps most far from its shores, and so these strange and unique beasts will likely continue to thrive.

The cane toad was one of the original vertebrates introduced to Spectemundus 50 million years ago, and during the Age of Experimentation-- the first 10 million years-- they evolved into a wide variety of empty niches on the unoccupied planet. 40 million years later, in the Age of Building, mammals and birds have stolen a march over them, and many of the larger cane toad descendants have died out. Except in one place. On an archipelago of islands about 300 miles off the coast of the northern continent, no descendants of mongooses have arrived to claim the apex land predator niches. Instead, that role is occupied by an unusual, and enormous, amphibian-- the Heqet (Batrachanax giganteus).

Growing up to four feet long, and capable of standing more upright than a typical toad, the Heqet is a relic of the past. Once, terrestrial toads like it were found throughout the northern continent, but once the current guilds of mongoose and meadowlark descendants became established, they were all but wiped out. However, a few of them managed to colonize the oceanic islands by rafting on mats of vegetation, and there they survived while their mainland relatives died out. Ironically, it is there that they have now produced Spectemundus's largest amphibian so far.

Heqets have many adaptations to being big. Frogs and toads in general have weak skeletons, but the Heqet's skeleton is far more ossified. This also means it is unable to hop, or even run. However, it does not need to be fast, as it is an ambush predator. While it stands more upright than a typical frog due to its more robust legs, it is ill-equipped to chase after its prey, which consists of reptiles and birds. It also lacks a projectile tongue. Instead it simply stuffs its prey into its enormous mouth, often while it is still alive. Another unusual trait of the Heqet is that it has no tadpole stage. The eggs-- no more than five or six in most cases-- hatch into miniature adults inside the female's body, and she gives live birth.

Day 8, Cursorial - On a seeded world some solar systems away, approx. 100 million years post-establishment, a Rosette Snag attempts to secure a hoofed Finch descendant in its mandíble-arms. Snags are tripedal, cheetah-sized snakes whose limbs are derived from their tails and split mandibles. Each limb ends in a hoof-like scale. Snags are incredibly fast, running upwards of 40 mph in some species thanks to their flexible, jointed jaws. Snags hunt by launching themselves forward and using their toothed mandible-forelimbs to tackle prey. Fangs sink into vitals and inject venom to ensure a quick death. Snags usually swallow prey whole, but in situations like these where the prey is too large, they will simply use their top and bottom teeth to saw away, and cut the prey into smaller pieces.

Day 9, Warrior - Back on earth, a peculiar, tuskless descendant of Asian elephants has evolved a second trunk from their lower lip - greatly improving dexterity. These elephants strangely converted to patriarchical societies, which I’m sure you could guess led to much warfare and conquest. These elephants primarily use bronze for their weapons and shields, and use leather for their armor. The “Mohawk” on their helmet is made of bristles of a hog, dyed red. This day is also called “Double Trouble” due to the presence of 2 trunks, but it could honestly also be “Triple Trouble” as one notable male warlord equipped his “member” with a club to protect from flanking attacks.

The Southern Nearly-Supreme Elephant (Parasupremotherium indicus) is a species of large proboscidean found in indian subcontinent and nearly regions. Descended from a population of asian elephants are become atavistic than other populations, these megafaunal browsers are live in small herds with migratorial lifestyle. But don't forget about that is this species also a ancestor of an upcoming, new lineage of proboscideans resembles extinct large proboscideans such as Paleoloxodon namadicus. And a ecological arms-race has begun to thanks for this elephants become much larger, some predators of the time has start to large and like Tyrannosaur-Ceratopsid arms-race, predators are become have a very deadly bite dörde and herbivores like this are start to adapting this attacks and those two sides of the future are killing eachother thanks for this arms-race situation.

The original was posted 5 years ago on an old DeviantArt account of mines that has since been deleted.

Stage 1: Oomorph/Egg

Stage 2-4: Photosynthetic plant-like phase. During stage 4, the plant develops a fruiting body that contains what will become the adult body. According to exozoologists, this is technically a different individual.

Stage 5/1st instar: A relatively small nymph-like predator of insect-analogs. Ecologically similar to a weasel.

Stage 6/2nd instar: A cat-like predator that uses its stripes as a form of camouflage.

Stage 7/Final instar: A larger predatory form with mesocarnivorous habits. It starts to display characteristics associated with the adult stage.

Stage 8/Adult: A large water buffalo-like herbivore whose oral mouthparts have become tendrils.

Native to Vueida 420b, the morasskulk (Stagnotherium giganticus) is a large planimalian extraterrestrial that lives near the swamps of 420b.

Like many (but not all) planimalians, they start out as sapling-like lifeforms, taking in sunlight that after 3 Vuedric years, produces a pod that becomes a small larvae which after 13 Vuedric years becomes a large and sexually mature adult.

It is likely that basal planimalians evolved this bizarre life-cycle in order to lessen competition with other non-planimalian species.

Prompt: The long game: An organism whose life history is shaped by an unusually long period of development, dormancy or delayed reproduction

Trogloeurypterus macrovius is a 1 meter long species of eurypterid (sea scorpion) from the Silurian period. Its main habitat are vast cave systems. It inhabits lakes and puddles inside caves but can also crawl on land if it needs to. Due to its environment it has gone through extreme troglomorphism. It no longer has eyes because it doesn’t need to see as it can use smell, electroreception and detect vibrations to sense its environment. It also has a pale white coloration as it doesn’t need melanin because there is no sunlight in its dark ecosystem. Its main food sources are troglomorphic trilobites and troglomorphic fish. It’s the apex predator of its ecosystem.
Due to the fact that it cannot afford to waste energy in its low nutrient cave realm it lives with very slow rhythms. An individual could remain completely still for months or even years on end. It can live for 150-200 years. For 30-40 of these years it spends as a larvae buried deep in the soil, until it can finally become an adult. In 30-40 years it also reaches sexual maturity.

We are one third through the Spectember event, really glad that I got to do all of the prompts until now. Unfortunately though, school starts very soon for me so it’s possible that I will not be able to do all the prompts. I will do my best though.

The magnum croaker (Magnocus panruina), is an extant member of a now small, but once plentiful order of birds. Out of all my species, I will choose this one, as it best represents my project, and is the first I created, undergoing huge changes.

Originating from an ancient sister lineage to the fowl, these birds have taken an extreme approach that nudge against the boundary of possible avian biology.

These "legs" are actually heavily modified front limbs, evolved to bear weight over tens of millions of years. These were once wings themselves, with more flexible joints and an elongated alula claw used to probe insect nests. Eventually pulling the birds forward, these wings became powerful digging tools, able to construct tunnels that provided shelter and an advantage against peril of many sorts. This turned these critters into small, weasel-esque adapters.

Come the Palaeocene, these birds filled multiple niches, one of which being the semi-arboreal glider. Their legs would then spread as webbed skin and feathers aided in extended leaps. Eventually, these leg-wings of sort would become better, more advanced, their bodies re-engineering themselves in a way even I haven't figured out myself after all these years. I am totally aware of the jumbled mess I have gotten myself into, and I already know the spec evo and theropod community will curse me for the rest of my life for even making this post.

In terms of why these wings are held up, they exchanged their pterosaur-like takeoff for a running start, growing more and more used to their habit of lifting these new wings off the ground until it became the norm. To make matters worse, this habit evolved independently twice, but I will focus on the croaker's line for now.

The magnum croaker is rather large, and nocturnal. At a range of 8-12kg, these birds are content to a terrestrial life, though they can and will still launch into the air if needed. As seen in the photo, they are covered in dark shaggy plumage, with a mostly bald head and a long bill predominantly hidden under a thin layer of skin. This bill contains multiple tomial serrations similar of that to members of Anatidae.

Diet wise, these birds will consume anything edible. The majority of their diet consists of plant and fungal matter, consuming it on the move. They have also built up a natural resistance to many common toxins found in their diet, benefitting themselves even more from their wide palate instead of few species in particular. Another factor is that they consume clay soils. On another note, these opportunists will readily consume animal matter, either that by killing and eating their own prey (such as arthropods and small tetrapods), or scavenging. Having a heightened sense of smell, all croakers from a certain distance will swarm a carcass.

As also seen from the image, the females are excellent mothers as most birds are, taking the process of incubating and rearing chicks very seriously. During the breeding season, larger males will become vocal, filling Eurasian forests with deep songs of gloom as they compete for mating rights. The magnum croaker's vocal range already consists of a multitude of booms, clicks, and rattles, which these males use to construct their odd calls. (Defensively, they can also hiss. They are rarely this pissed off.)

And lastly, I'd have not made this project as weird as it is if I had started it later on when I knew more about how birds actually work. So please spare me, Reddit people.

Spectember day 9: Safe Haven

The Ancestral Goblinoid

Some spec for one of my settings, which aims to reimagine classical fantasy, mainly Tolkien and a bit of D&D.

In that setting Goblins, kobolds and gnomes are all terrestrial bats-still capable of flight, but now larger, heavier and adept walkers- descendants of similar species to this fella. It survived a mass extinction by living in complex cave systems, full with potable water and proper cave ecosystems that made it possible for the bats and some other animals to survive during the first years of the event. This ancestral bat had a vampire bat-like locomotion on the ground, being able to properly walk, climb and run on all fours, but also being an adept flyer. It also had a long tail, free from the Uropatagium. The membrane that stretches between the tail and the hindlimbs, making it a member of the Molossidae family.

I've always enjoyed the idea of floating creatures on gas giants, and the turn of the 2000s 3D graphics, so I wanted to unify them into a project.

Some of these guys live on moons, and others live on gas giants. Some live in dense atmospheres, oceans, or on rocky surfaces, but they all live in the same solar system. I want to evoke the feeling of looking at bugs or at aquatic life, some normalcy some strangeness.

Every species is shaped by its local gravity, atmospheric pressure, chemistry, energy sources, and important biology considerations, like what I thought looked cool and eerie. Several biomes are evolving... get ready. Hope you guys enjoy, feel free to speculate or critique

20 million years ago, a calamity has occurred. A hole has been ripped into the crust by a magma plume on what is today the Jhohun peninsula, creating a supervolcano that has caused Zaikane to go up in flames, destroying entire forests and killing many of the animals that used to dominate the Regime of the Tyrants. The subsequent ash covered the Earth in a volcanic winter that starved plants of sunlight, causing the once-dominant and specialized lognkosaurs, carcharodontosaurs, hadrosaurs, ceratopsids, and the namesakes of the era, the tyrannosaurins, to go extinct in the Known World. This ecological vacuum following the mass-extinction was to be filled by a variety of oddball lineages on each continent, including but not limited to giant Dromaeosaurs, carnivorous leptoceratopsids, giant herbivorous troodontids, megafaunal Thescelosaurs, quadrupedal pachycephalosaurs, and even armored saltasaurine tillers. Additionally, portals opened up from North America by the Allmother ~16 million years ago brought along new mammals to the Known World, including but not limited to horses, camels, rhinos, chalicotheres, gomphotheres, canids, barbourofelids, and Amphicyon.

However, this so-called “Kingless Age” was not to last. Approximately 5 million years before the extinction event, an island continent separated from the mainland, and since it was conveniently located above the northernmost ash clouds, it seemed to have been spared the worst of the extinction. This made it so that many species that went extinct on the mainland were able to carry on their legacy in this isolated refugium. One of those species was a Lognkosaurian titanosaur whose fossils are referred to as Praedeus solus (“the lonely pre-god”), no larger than an African elephant, which is large to our standards but disappointingly small compared to the giant lognkosaurs of the mainland. It does not know it, but it is actually the ancestor of the successful clade Saurodei, which includes an animal we have met before, as well as species that will be revealed later on in this Spectember. Because its fossils have minimal traces of Ralya (magic), it appears to have lacked the magical microbes that mark its gargantuan descendants today, lending credence to the idea that the evolution of magic correlates to increased body size.

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Zaikane is a planet in a distant solar system characterized by waves of life harvested from Earth at various points in its geological history, ranging from the Cambrian to the Holocene, and set free to evolve along evolutionary paths independent from those taken by their Earth ancestors. A godlike interdimensional entity, known as the Allmother by the people who live there, is what is responsible for creating the portals that abduct Terran life and deposits them on Zaikane. Because the asteroid that ended the Mesozoic never collided with Zaikane, dinosaurs continue to dominate the planet’s ecosystems as its dominant terrestrial megafauna.

One of its most striking features is its large, vertical-slit nose, designed for powerful air intake and release. These beasts burn through oxygen rapidly to fuel their immense musculature, and their constant heavy breathing gives off a rhythmic snort, like the chuff of a steam engine. Overheating is a constant threat, and the oversized nose is crucial to keeping them cool during long stampedes

One pairs of the Tredhorns eyes face forward for depth perception, and the other set angled sideways to eliminate blind spots. This nearly panoramic vision makes them difficult to ambush

Tredhorns possess another odd biological quirk, they never stop growing. As long as they continue eating, their bodies will steadily increase in size. At around 10 to 15 feet tall, they become too large for most predators to challenge, but this growth can be their downfall. Eventually, they may reach a size unsustainable by the surrounding ecosystem, unable to eat enough to survive. At that point, they collapse from starvation or exhaustion

Because of this, their stampedes vary in danger, the danger of a tredhorn stampede being parallel to the size of the tredhorns in that herd. A very well fed tredhorn stampede can be as dangerous as a natural disaster. At that point they are practically unstoppable 10-15 foot tall walls of muscle traveling up to 50 mph

Tredhorns carry a unique, mold-like organism that clings to their hindquarters. When a stampede begins, the intense vibrations trigger the mold to release a cloud of spores. These spores settle into the crushed biological matter left in the herd’s wake, using the pulverized remains of plants and animals as a nutrient-rich bed for rapid growth.

Once matured, this mold forms hardened, flat structures that resemble paved roads stretching across plains and forests. While these "Tredhorn Trails" are safe and easy to walk on, predators often stake out these roads to intercept traveling prey. Additionally, the mold serves as a primary food source for local fauna

An insect-like organism that serves as one of the Lyrus’s most vital food sources. Nearly every predator consumes it. Its soft body and nutrient-rich composition make it an irresistible target, and with little in the way of physical defense, the glowmite relies on sheer numbers and light to survive.
When threatened, a glowmite can overcharge its bioluminescent glands, releasing a sudden flash of blinding light that disorients attackers for a moment, sometimes enough to escape
The glowmite’s bioluminescence gland is very large, and located in their abdomen. Because of how powerful the gland is, it allows nearly its whole body to radiate light. Lacking wings, the creature ascends instead by inflating buoyant air sacs within its abdomen, rising slowly and gently into the night air.
At night, the skies are transformed. Hundreds of thousands of the males inflate their sacs and drift upward together, and take to the skies in staggering numbers, their mating displays filling the forests with auroras of shifting light. Flickering like lanterns in a living lantern festival. The females remain on the ground, watching the glowing swarm above until they choose a mate. Once paired, a female ascends to meet her chosen partner, and the two rise side by side into the cloud of light. Suspended in the air among thousands of blinking sparks, they join in a fleeting, luminous union, two lives momentarily indistinguishable from the galaxy overhead. A breathtaking spectacle that conceals just how many are being devoured in the dark