295 million years Post-establishment
As temperature began to drop again and atmosphere to thinn, most of the forests covering Serinaustra disappeared, taking most of its inhabitants. However, some of these animals manged to survive this ongoing collapse. This was the case of large, herbivorous canitheres like Manducus. Most of these animals adapted to still moist Austral Swamp, giving rise to species like Gumberoo or Marimonstrum. Few, however, nanadged to survive in the Southern Steppe - a wast, dry expanse covered in little more than grasses.
The Short-faced Belua, to be exact, is the most common species of its small genus of steppe-adapted foxtrotters, known as thornbiters. This animal is mostly hairless, covered in tough, dark-grey hide, with the exeption of yellow stripes and singular large spot on its snout, with is the same color. Such and odd coloration is a form of early warning for predators, a form of aposematism, as this animals has quite a temper. Because of that, even Sylvansparks and Slaughtersprinters will most often refuse to hunt Belugas, unless easer option is unavaliable. In comparison to its direct ancestor, Manducus, this animal is much smaller, reaching on average 4 feet ( ~120 centimeters ) at the shoulder. Belugas spend most of their lives alone, meeting only to mate, with occurs during late autumn or early winter, to ensure young will be born at the time of greatest availability of food. After birth, often singular pup will be reliant on mother for the first two years of life and after that will require additional two to three years to fully sexually mature.
The namie of its group is by no mean accidental, as they are, in a way, a Sernaustra's response to the thorngrazers of Serinarcta. Their ancestors, already equipped with large, flat teeth and powerful jaw muscles, only made their characteristics more extreme with them. Now, their skull is significantly shorter, so bite fore can be more easily applied to a singular point. Their jaw musculature is also greatly enlarged.
However, there similarities with thorngrazers end. First and the most important difference is that instead singular large front “tooth” grinding against the bottom one, these creatures process their food with enlarged cheek teeth. Another important difference is that Belua and other thornbiters are unable to process cellulose, especially in comparison to more herbivorous members of thorngrazer family. This is because they lack both specialised enzymes or multi-chambered stomachs. Despite that, they’re still capable of consuming food from wide range of sources, like fresh buds, fruits, tree bark, insects, living prey and carrion. They can also feed on bulbs, with are dug out with the help of its lower tooth.
While the world around them is dramatically changing once again and species slip into extinction, Beluas still continue to thrive. Thanks to their adaptations, these remarkable animals are near-perfectly adapted for the incoming condition, ensuring their survival, at least for now.
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As the climate changed and boundless forests covering Serinaustra receded, they took most of its biodiversity with them, mostly animals reliant to tree cover. Some species, however, didn’t disappeared this easly. Animals closer to the forest floor fared on average much better than those above, especially burdles. Alongside them other creatures prospered as well, like small canitheres, dog-like tribbets. Some of them even, previously relegated to the shadows, saw rise to new evolutionary experiments, like Pricklehound.
Pricklehound is a member of, up to recently, a rather unassuming lineage of Southern foxtrotters that can trace its beginning almost to the very start of now gone hothouse period, some 25 million years ago.
When environment finally stabilised, ancestral foxtrotted quickly began to specialise. The lineage that eventually gave rise to Pricklehound and its relatives began to mostly feed on fallen fruits and insects living on the forest floor. However, they started eventually competing with small burdles and tribbats. Burdles, with their tough bills and strong limbs were better able to break down large fruits and tear logs apart to seek larvae hinding within them, while tribbats were better suited for chasing down particularly mobile insects. Instead going to extinct, however, these foxtrotters began to seek insects hiding where their competitors had no access to – underground. These molewolfes as we can call them, in order to better fit their new lifestyle, became better and better diggers. They also got smaller, a rather rare occurrence in environment rich in resources.
At first, these early molewolfs weren’t that well specialised to fossorial lifestyle. Many species still were spending substantial amount of time above the ground. However, with the advent of final stretch, some species were finally pushed towards greater specialisation. In many ways, these canitheres went a way not to dissimilar to that taken by wormslayers and other small bumblets.
Pricklehound belongs to more basal lineage of of these fossorial canitheres that once more grew in size, fuelled by decrease in competition. However this doesn’t mean that they gave up their previous lifestyle entirely. They still are capable diggers, feeding on insects, small terrestrial snarks, fruits and eggs. While they did increased in size, they are still very small creatures, barely reaching 30 centimetres, or just under a foot, in length, and with disappearance of plant cover, they would’ve been vulnerable to predation. Because of that, they are covered in sharp spines to deter potential hunters. For additional defence, they take rest in burrows dug by other creatures, like large burdles.
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This time I'm posting two artworks in one post.
areudirty
snowghoul
theartofmadeline
dededos