#pentapods

[entelodante]

lil diagram for a pentapod lung! this is the basic settup for all terrestrial pentapods, Whorls included! More detailed info below!

First off, the lung is located right against the shell atop the back and is about the same length as the bone girdle that supports the other organs and leg anchors. The lungs basic structure has two bone pieces at either end, a 'nozzle' which holds open the airway, and the 'butt' which just helps maintain structure. The main support comes from four rings of cartilage, which prevent the lung from fully sucking closed on exhale! This is because the lung is open and closed by way of tendon! Four main tendons are anchored to the girdle and bottom wall of lung, the muscles associated with these tendon contract to pull open the lung and draw in air. Running through the lung itself are smaller tendons also connected to that bottom wall. These anchor to the shell and pull upwards to push air out of the lungs. While both sets are able to fight against the other, the lower tendons have a lot more tension and so the 'default' position of the lung is open.

But for Whorls, breathing is a pretty much involuntary process, think how you can choose to hold your breath but most times don't even think about needing to manually breathe. Aside from right now! At least they don't have to worry about manual blinking, could you imagine?

All in all though, this is just the basic layout and I'm thinking secondarily aquatic pentapods may even be able to fully collapse the lung. And that many pentapod species (not whorl) make noises by contracting different portions of the lung and making weird honks and barks. Much to think about!

[goblinratcreacher]

Had to draw @extrajigs Whorls with my species, the Lirri as soon as I saw them. They're tripedal pentapod friends!

[entelodante]

Critters from the coasts of Backera! Wanted to explore pentapods of varying pod number. Info dump below!

The eco system these guys inhabit are the vast shallow sea beds between the sea and 'land'. Where the microbial mat swells up to take in sunshine whilst keeping somewhere between a few inches to a foot of water above. This habitat favors walking over swimming for larger beasts, doing a separate post for the 'fish' of Backera. Those are a whole other brand of beast. For now we'll stick to the larger animals on the scene. Going left to right because I'm biased. 1. A quad-pod, a fellow who specializes in using mouth parts modified into clubs to break into shells and rigid 'plants'. While they have two very LARGE jaws, the other three are teeny tiny so they mostly rely on suction once they open their food. They have decided to be boring and use only their front four legs for walking, whilst their hind leg is to scrape out divots to lay eggs in the sea bed. 2. A TRUE pentapod, these guys spend their day swishing their heads back and forth. The wide arc of their eyes allow them to always have a lot of vision above the waterline at all times. Their dainty mouthparts are a constant scuttle against the slime mat to kick up organic matter to scarf down. The long horn jutting up their back is actually hollow and used to trumpet at each other at a distance. Very noisy. 3. With the least amount of feet in the lineup is the flag foot! These fellas are built to prance through the water and chase down any poor fish spotted by those big ole peepers. But they really shine when it comes to display. Upon meeting, the smaller individual will lower their head and wave around their display legs, wooing their potential partner with flashes of color. Most of the time their audience ends up wandering away.

Want to work on more FLAVOR for Backera, this is only the START!

[entelodante]

More penta-beasts! Want to get a good grasp of the morphs going on in this planet. So sketched these out between coms! Info below!

First is more of a grazing type of 'animal', though their grazing is more so scrapping at the ground. The top and bottom jaws are used for scratching up edible bits from the biomat, while the middle are used for combing through the gunk they accumulate from scratching. They also got these long curved eyes. I was thinking like how animals with horizontal pupil align the pupil to the horizon, these guys just have their eye built into two modes so they have the wide vision when feeding and just hanging out. Maybe a lil goofy but this planet is just made to be silly. Like this other guy! This is a predatory pentapod, usually stalking up in the night before starting a quick chase. Most of the time the food gets away but if not they have modified their spear into their primary method of dispatching prey. They kill via exsanguination and eat with very dainty little bites as their jaws have atrophied a little bit. Also fun spikey shell to make them extra dangerous! Maybe it's when they have lil spats with each other.

[entelodante]

How do the aquatic organisms on the pentapod planet look like? Do they have a siphon like earth cephalopods? I would also like to see a diagram of the whorl respiratory system.

There is quite a mix of aquatic critters on there! The planet is mostly ocean so lots of room. The main group I've got going on rn are the 'fish' analogs. Which unlike the pentapods descend from a separate bilateral ancestor! Which their basal condition is a floor sucking pancake, as seen below.

Sadly no siphon, their 'mouth' is actually their gasping breathing orifice, the true mouth is behind the legs! Have a bigger post for dif 'animal' types and they're gunna be included.

[entelodante]

Tripods gotta stick together! Response to @goblinratcreacher s art of our two species! The Lirri and Whorls, I love how they have like the same leg settup but just rotated around! Could probably still share shoes tho!

[entelodante]

Finally finished my Whorl redesign. They were cute before but idk, I wasn't digging their eyes. I gave them a frisbee head and they are much better for it now! More in depth info to be found below!

Whorls are a sophont from the slime ball planet Backera, the planets crust is entirely covered in miles thick microbial mat so the floor is always very much alive. The main form of "animal" life on the planet are the pentapods, analogous to Earth tetrapods in terms of niches and all that. Pentapods are distinguished by their five limbs, five jaws, partial exoskeleton, and an internal boney limb girdle. Whorls are from a clade of predatory pentapods who branched into frugivory a while back, eventually leading to tighter knit communities built around maintaining their farm mats. Whorls live in towns with populations between a few dozen to a few thousand, their settlements are also how they get their name. Their buildings are spiral shaped, expanded by spiraling them outward! I'm getting around to drawing that, its v cool. They eat mostly 'plant' matter, fruiting bodies from sessile organisms and maybe some choice floor scrapings. Meat is also greatly enjoyed, but is typically reserved for older Whorls or very small children. Children who by the by, go through a little aquatic stage before committing to wet land. Babies are traditionally left to grow in slow moving rivers, but modern times find communal pools to be a lot more popular.

Whorl families consist of one 'bearing' parent and anywhere from 1-5 'seeding' parents. Whorls do not have sexes, but they do have a few genders! Mostly they have to do with who is stabbing/getting stabbed and gender will change throughout a Whorls life. An important note here though is that most pentapods, including Whorls, fertilize via traumatic insemination stab. This is understandably rough on the stabbee so generally only older, larger individuals will be the ones going through pregnancy. That's the basic gist, will get more into it as I get around to it. But just wanted to reboot them a little!

[entelodante]

NEW WORLDBUILDING PROJECT BABYYY!!!

Concept: World covered entirely in microbial mat and whose macrofauna are pentapods. One of which is a sophont. 

1. The world itself is a little smaller than Earth, but is also the third planet from it’s star and has two moons. It has a pretty even climate with no icecaps due to it’s very thick hothouse atmosphere, even despite it’s p crazy axial tilt. It’s atmosphere is similar to Earths but contains a lot more water vapor and methane and less nitrogen. The surface of the planet is covered almost entirely in microbial mat, to the point where actual ground is buried miles deep and the world would be entirely covered in ocean if not for the mats. The only ‘land’ comes from mounds of organic material built up from the sea floor that have grown large enough to finally breach the surface.  Names Planet: Backera  Bigger Moon: Milcer Smaller Moon: Daunverr Sun: Sentil 

As for the macrobiology I’m still working it out but right now there are two basic groupings of terrestrial pentapods. Subject to very likely change. 

First are the Eyebacks. Who are most known for uh, having eyes on their back. They also have their gills open on their neck and need to submerge time and again in water to breathe correctly.

2. That group includes this lil beastie, the Foxtrot, who lives up to their namesake being a crafty lil ankle biter. They are a fast lil critter who prowls the coast for small fast moving prey. They are also quite capable swimmers and swap between land and sea whenever they need to grab a snack or avoid becoming one. 

3. Another Eyeback is the aquatic Mynar, who uses their big ass nose horn to scrape away at the mats and stir up fresh food. Generally they stay in water only a few feet deep, moving on to find the freshest growth. Their life style leaves them with a coating of their own though, stained by the food they stir up. 

Second group are the now tripodial Elytra’s, who have badass lil beetle backs, and have lifted their front two limbs up to use for object manipulation. They are terrestrial but still rely on water for their tadpole larval stage. 

4. This is called a Thwap, because they are very aggressive and use those first set of limbs for smacking anything that makes them even slightly uncomfortable. These are predators that focus on terrorizing smaller prey, loosely associating in groups of 3-10 individuals.  

5. The SOPHONT!! I have no idea what to name these guys, so ideas are welcome! I just knew I wanted to give ‘em big ole eyes. They are a omnivorous people descended from hypercarnivorous ancestors. Their culture is centered around large families, usually a ‘wife’ and their many ‘husbands’, but the main thing to set them apart from the rest is the amount of care put into raising their offspring. They will have large pools dedicated to their lil babies until they’re ready to be walking around. Not super advanced technologically since y’know, iron and other metals is somewhat inaccessible. But maybe that’ll change, still thinking of how I want to set up the planet. 

More to come, I want to develop the biology of the mats a lot more. I got hella good ideas for some biomes I want.