Most of the land to the south and west of the hot plains is
covered in dense jungle and rainforest. However, much of the eastern parts of
these forests have recessed as a result of Cursor
activity. Although the climate should allow the area to be more densely
forested, the species of Cursor that
inhabits the mossland just east of forest prevents many trees from growing
there, since they’re consumed as small shrubs as the animals graze. The change
from jungle to mossland is gradual, with an area of open woodland interspaced
with mossland between the two. It is the wildlife that inhabits this area that
will be discussed here.
Virgata purpura
Size: 1.5 metres tall discounting tail
Diet: leaves, grass, sometimes fruit and seeds
Habitat: savanna, woodland outskirts
Colouration: purple, with stripes of light and dark purple
and black
Symmetry: 6 fold radial symmetry
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
These animals are one of many species belonging to the
fairly large family Folivoridae, a lineage closely related to Muscivoridae. Like muscivorids, they have a long proboscis, but they are distinguished from the
related group by a longer and thinner tail with a tip adapted for grasping
food. Although their tails are their primary means of gathering food, their
proboscises haven’t atrophied; they are still useful for meeting the tail half
way after food is gathered, so they needn’t reach all the way to their mouth.
Their proboscis also allows them to drink ammonia without having to bend down.
Virgata purpura
prefer to inhabit more open spaces than most other folivorids, and engage in a
greater extent of herding behaviour, comparable to that of muscivorids. They
have a slight build with fairly long legs and are quite agile runners, allowing
them to effectively escape from predators even in lightly forested areas. Their
exoskeletons and feathers are patterned in stripes, which not only serves to
break up their form but visually confuses predators when they’re moving quickly
in large groups. Since they’re small enough that the largest Acuti species of
the area (who possess colour vision) are able to hunt them, they are purple in
colour in order to blend in with the purple vegetation around them.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Lactilinguida
Subclass: Plumalia
Order: Herbivora
Family: Folivoridae
Tribe: Velocini
Genus: Virgata
Species: V. purpura
Procera collaris
Size: 4.5 meters tall up to tail, 8 meters with tail
stretched up
Diet: leaves and fruit
Habitat: open woodland, savanna
Colouration: bright green and blue patterns, circle of
yellow around the base of the tail
Symmetry: 8 fold radial symmetry
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
Like Virgata, this
species also belongs to the family Folivoridae. However, the two species rarely
run into competition, since Procera eat
far higher leaves than Virgata do.
Their long tails and legs allow them to reach the high and relatively untouched
foliage of some of the tallest trees of the forest outskirts, almost completely
ignoring those in reach of Virgata. In
order to support their weight at such heights they have a relatively light
build, with a proportionately short body in comparison to their leg and tail
length. Without their proboscis they would be unable to reach such heights, as
squatting down to reach ammonia to drink is impractical for them.
The species is too large to be hunted by acuti, and since
their only natural predators are the colour blind venators they are able to use
the colour of their feathers for display. However, although colourful, the
shade of their feathers is patterned in such a way so as to break up their form
from the point of view of any colour blind animal. This way, they are able to
stand out to other members of their own species, with colouration distinct from
the foliage around them, while at the same time being effectively camouflaged
from their predators.
They have a social structure based on a similar system of
grooming as Minopuniceus, but with
the sharing of fruit among group members playing an additional role. They don’t
always eat the food they gather straight away; while they will often eat leaves
as they find them, when particularly large fruit is found they instead keep
them in case they wish to trade it to win the favour of other members of the
group. Because of this dominant members of a group will usually eat far more
fruit. There is usually a single individual at the very top of the hierarchy, with
the yellow feathers at the base of their tail particularly prominent and
brightly coloured. This individual is most often also the tallest.
They are very intelligent animals, with more complex
relationships than the otherwise socially similar Minopuniceus. As such they have much smaller group sizes than both
Minopuniceus and the related Virgata, allowing them to keep track of
the group dynamics and know everybody more intimately. They tend not to gather
closely together, and do not possess the same herding instinct common among muscivorids and many folivorids. They simply don’t need to live in large groups,
as their size offers enough protection on its own.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Lactilinguida
Order: Herbivora
Family: Folivoridae
Tribe: Procerini
Genus: Procera
Species: P. collaris
Eastern Tree
Lethargid
(Ramiflagellum solum)
Size: 30 - 40 centimetres long on average
Diet: meat, often preys on animals larger than itself
Habitat: arboreal
Colouration: brown, reddish brown or purplish brown
Symmetry: bilateral, originally evolved from radially symmetrical
animals
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
Venators are a very large and successful class of animals,
and although most are predatory they fill a large range of niches and inhabit a
large range of environments. Not all venators focus on pack hunting and chasing
down prey like Leolupus. Some, namely those belonging to the family Lethargidae, are much smaller and
instead have a much more solitary and cunning approach to hunting, which
involves hiding and waiting for their prey to approach. They have very long
lashing tongues with sharp barbs, and many species utilise toxins or bacteria
to make up for their lack of size or strength.
Ramiflagellum solum is
a lethargid much more adapted to climbing than other members of the family,
spending the vast majority of its time in trees. Their genus is distinct from
other members of the family by their smaller size and the presence of
opposable, grasping digits on all six limbs, as well as a longer and more
elastic tongue than most other species. While a small size is beneficial to
terrestrial arboreal animals, it is even more so on Amthalassa. Many trees are
lightweight and only supported by the lift they’re afforded by sacks of
hydrogen, so if any animal is large enough to overcome this lift on a given branch
the branch will collapse. Because of this, members of the genus Ramiflagellum are comparatively weak and
lightweight even compared to other related groups, so they have to rely even
more on their ability to hide.
When a prey animal is sighted, Ramiflagellum solum will lash its tongue
out from the tree concealing it, using its well-developed senses and accuracy
to target weak spots or gaps between exoskeleton sections. If the strike is
successful, and the teeth pierce the animal’s flesh, a form of modified, toxic
stomach acid that is kept on the tips of its teeth is injected into the
animal’s blood. This venom will slowly weaken the animal, and Ramiflagellum will stealthily follow it
until it eventually falls unconscious and becomes easy to kill. This way, Ramiflagellum is able to take down prey
far larger than itself.
Although primarily arboreal, they
spend more time on the ground than their cousins deeper into the rainforest
further west, and lack many of their adaptations such as a prehensile tail.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Venatores
Order: Insectilupiformes
Family: Lethargidae
Genus: Ramiflagellum
Species: R. solum
Woodland Septacaud
(Ramicauda orientalis)
Size: 60 centimetres to 1 metre
Diet: fruit and leaves
Habitat: arboreal
Colouration: purple
Symmetry: radial (seven fold)
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs lacking
hard shells in bodies of ammonia.
These animals inhabit the wetter and more densely forested
part of the area, spending most of their adult lives high in trees but
returning to the ground to lay eggs. These eggs are laid in ponds, where the
aquatic, snake-like larvae will spend all their time until they’re developed
enough to survive on land.
 |
| Above: Ramicauda disguising itself on a tree branch |
 |
| Above: A young Ramicauda in its aquatic larval state |
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Multicaudata
Class: Septicaudata
Order: Polymorpha
Family: Ramicaudidae
Genus: Ramicauda
Species: R. orientalis
Hinnuleus occidentalis
Size: 90 centimetres on average, discounting tail
Diet: leaves, moss, fungus, sometimes fruit and seeds
Habitat: woodland
Colouration: red, purple and brown, usually in a pattern
that breaks up their form
Symmetry: 8 fold
radial symmetry
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
Hinnuleus is a
group of folivorids much smaller than Virgata
purpura, preferring to make use of their small size to hide in the dense
foliage of the woodlands at the expense of running ability. They are very well
camouflaged, but their small size doesn’t allow them to reach high leaves.
Instead they will usually focus on leaves closer to the ground, although this
is more of an advantage than anything else; with Hinnuleus, Virgata and Proceri focusing on leaves at three
different heights, they are all able to occupy the same woodland in spite of
their similar diets without running into competition.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Lactilinguida
Subclass: Plumalia
Order: Herbivora
Family: Folivoridae
Genus: Hinnuleus
Species: H. occidentalis
Duocaputina
(Cornucerva magna)
Size: 1.4 to 1.7 metres long
Diet: primarily fungi, sometimes shrubs, moss or kelp tree leaves
Habitat: woodland
Colouration: reddish brown
Symmetry: biradial
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
There are multiple occasions on Amthalassa where
initially radially symmetrical animals have become at least partially
bilaterally symmetrical. This usually happens in faster animals, so they can
become more specialised at running in a single direction. Duocaputina is one
such case. This group is actually a member of the family Folivoridae, but have
changed much from the basal body plan of the group. To say they’re bilaterally
symmetrical isn’t entirely accurate; they’re biradially symmetrical, with two distinct lines of symmetry rather
than one. They have a distinct top and bottom, and sides of the body distinct
from the front and back. However, the front and back of the body are identical,
with one “head” on either end. This is probably advantageous in that the animal
can begin running in either direction upon sighting a predator, without having
to turn before running as much as they’d otherwise have to if they were purely
bilaterally symmetrical.
The animal’s mouth is underneath its body. Since their tail
isn’t as long as that of most other folivorids, as it has been reduced in size
to make the animal more aerodynamic for running, they rely on their proboscis
for feeding. Because of this, they are only usually able to eat food off the
ground, so their diet primarily consists of fungi growing on the forest floor. However,
they will occasionally use their weight to pull down smaller kelp trees by
walking over them, allowing them to reach their leaves.
The genus Cornucerva is
distinguished from other members of the tribe Duocaputina by the presence of
horns, as well as a particularly thick, shell-like exoskeleton on the back and
“heads”. They use these horns to settle in-group disputes, as their primary
means of intraspecies fighting is head-butting. Sexual selection also played a
role in the development of horns.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Lactilinguida
Subclass: Plumalia
Order: Herbivora
Family: Folivoridae
Tribe: Velocini
Subtribe: Duocaputina
Genus: Cornucerva
Species: C. magna
Caudarostrum externum
Size: 20 - 50 centimetres, not including tail
Diet: seeds, leaves and fruit
Habitat: arboreal
Colouration: purple
Symmetry: 8 fold
radial symmetry
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
Although most folivorids use their tails graspers to gather
food, they are usually very poor at biting up food with it. However, there is a
branch of Folivoridae that have developed hard beaks at the end of their tails.
Although the ancestral form was likely a reasonably large herbivore, most
extant species are much smaller than is the norm for folivorids, and many, such
as Caudarostrum, are even tree dwellers.
Caudarostum spends
almost all of its life hanging from trees with its hook-like claws as it
browses for food with its beak. Its beak is particularly well adapted for
eating seeds, which make up a large portion of its diet.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Lactilinguida
Subclass: Plumalia
Order: Herbivora
Family: Folivoridae
Subfamily: Caudarostrinae
Tribe: Caudarostrini
Genus: Caudarostrum
Species: C. externum
Fresh Ammonia Fish
Many species of Amthalassan fish inhabit the ammonia rivers
and lakes of the woodland. Most plurafistulate fish on Amthalassa are long and
snake-like in appearance, or somewhat resemble an eel. Unlike Earth fish, most
lack movable fins, and many lack fins altogether, although a number of fish
species possess facial tentacles. Those with tentacles belong to the clade Ouropsia (although many branches of Ouropsia have lost their tentacles), and it
is this group that most land plurafistulates descended from (and in fact, still
belong to).
Magnicollum pondus
Size: 2 metres tall, discounting tail
Diet: leaves, sometimes fruit
Habitat: open woodland
Colouration: bright green and red
Symmetry: 8 fold
radial symmetry
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
Most folivorids make use of their long tails to reach high
vegetation. Although Magnicollum,
too, focuses on higher foliage, it does not use the same method as its
relatives. While on Earth, trees are fairly rigid and difficult to manipulate,
this is not the case with kelp trees. Magnicollum
is much stockier for its height than other folivorids, and makes use of its
high weight to anchor itself to the ground as it pulls down kelp trees with its
muscular “neck”. As soon as the animal obtains the vegetation it needs, it
releases its grip on the tree and allows it to float back up to its original
height.
There is a limit on how large a tree an individual can pull
down this way; larger trees have more hydrogen sacks, and so are more buoyant,
and will remain floating under the weight of a larger animal. This is why
members of the genus are so large, otherwise they cannot effectively pull larger
trees down.
Much of the animal’s extra weight consists of exoskeleton. Since
this is fairly unenergetic tissue, this means the animal can be much more
massive without requiring more energy, so the full benefits of being able to
obtain more food by pulling down larger kelp trees can be felt. This thick
exoskeleton, coupled with the animal’s large size, makes them well protected
from predators. Because of this, as well as the fact their large size makes
camouflage difficult, their colouration is mainly for display purposes.
Taxonomic
classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Lactilinguida
Subclass: Plumalia
Order: Herbivora
Family: Folivoridae
Genus: Magnicollum
Species: M. pondus
Claviungula corticis
Size: 20 centimetres from toes to tail tip
Diet: meat, tube bugs
Habitat: arboreal
Colouration: brown, reddish brown or orange-brown
exoskeleton. Feathers also tend to be dull colours to camouflage them from
colour seeing prey.
Symmetry: 8 fold radial symmetry
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
These are acuti belonging to the family Sciuracutidae, a group of very small, tree dwelling acuti. Most sciuracutids, Claviungula included, climb by digging their sharp, long claws into the trunks of wood trees, a means of locomotion where lower body weight provides an obvious advantage.
Like most acuti, sciuracutids tend to be carnivorous. Due
to their size, however, they tend to go after very small prey, much smaller
than even other acuti. Claviungula
has a diet composed primarily of tube bugs and grassbugs, but will also eat
small plurafistulates, including young Caudaerostrum
on occasion. Their primary means of hunting plurafistulates is by sneaking up
on them and striking at the last minute, but they usually simply lash their clawed
tongues out to eat tube bugs or use their long claws to pick them out of trees.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Lactilinguida
Subclass: Plumalia
Order: Acuta
Family: Sciuracutidae
Genus: Claviungula
Species: C. corticis
Tree Grazing Floater
(Foliovis aculeatus)
Size: up to 10 metres long
Diet: leaves
Habitat: forests, above trees
Colouration: brown, orange-brown, red-brown
Symmetry: bilateral
Reproduction: sexual, all hermaphrodites. Lays eggs.
Like other floaters, those in the family Arboripascidae have
a symbiotic relationship with hydrogen producing plants, allowing a large
hydrogen sack to grow on their bellies to remain buoyant. Arboripascids are far
larger than the faster and more flexible rectabullids, plodding along very
slowly.
Foliovis spends
its time above the highest canopy of forests, grazing the top layer of leaves
as another animal might graze grass. They spend much of the day eating, and
possess three proboscises that allow them to forage for food at a fast rate.
If they depended just on their mouths, they’d have to spend
a lot of energy moving about just to obtain the large quantities of food needed
to support their size, and for a creature this large and slow this isn’t very
practical. They’d use more energy than they’d obtain. However, they have three
fast moving and long proboscises – each formed by the fusion of two tongues –
where they consume almost all of their food from.
They spend a lot of time hovering in a single place, eating
as much of the leaves as they can while moving only their tongues, before
moving on to another area.
In order to support their large size, their balloon leaf
cavity takes up most of their body. To further decrease their weight, they have
many air sacks throughout their body that only allow hydrogen from the balloon
leaf in.
Arboripascids are warm blooded and capable of localised
heating in different parts of their body. To further lower their density, their
hydrogen sacks are heated a great deal more than the rest of their bodies. The rest
of the body is kept cooler, at temperatures more optimal for their physiology.
This heating lowers the density of the hydrogen, contributing to the buoyancy
of these animals.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Folivesicata
Subclass: Vesicaspecata
Order: Aerobalaenacea
Family: Arboripascidae
Genus: Foliovis
Species: F. aculeatus
Woodsnake
(Silvavora unguis)
Size: 40 to 80 centimetres long
Diet: wood, plant exoskeleton, leaves
Habitat: trees
Colouration: dull brown or reddish brown
Symmetry: 8 fold radial
Reproduction: sexual or asexual, all hermaphrodites and can
self-fertilise. Lays eggs.
A distant relative of the earthsnake, woodsnakes share their
relative’s powerful beaks, but use them to bite into wood or plant exoskeleton rather than soil.
Since they aren’t burrowing animals, they lack the lung capacity of
earthsnakes, and the facial appendages used for digging by their relatives can
do nothing more than manipulate food.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Hydrogenia
Phylum: Plurafistulata
Superclass: Exoskeletida
Class: Sectatestae
Order: Bidigiti
Family: Silvavoridae
Genus: Silvavora
Species: S. unguis
Haploformica dumus
Size: gametophytes are tiny, measuring from under a
millimetre to a centimetre depending on the type. Sporophytes grow throughout
their whole lives and can range from 15 cm to several meters, though are
usually quite small, about a meter in height.
Diet: plants and small tube bugs brought back by
gametophytes
Habitat: woodland, savanna
Colouration: gametophytes are often dark and dull in colour
for camouflage. Sporophytes have grey bark and orange leaves.
Symmetry: gametophytes have radial symmetry. Sporophytes
have roughly radial symmetry, with branching.
Reproduction: reproduces sexually with gametophytes
This is one of the many species of Amthalassa belonging to
the mostly mobile group of plants. Many mobile plants, however – especially
those belonging to the class Immota – are sessile during certain stages of
their life, planting their roots into the ground permanently once they find a
suitable location.
Like many other mobile plants, the gametophytes of Haploformica are
capable of locomotion. The order it belongs to, Rapidasperma, is unique in that
the role of these gametophytes aren’t limited to reproduction; they also defend
the plant, do work for the plant, and gather food for it from its surroundings.
They produce gametophytes almost all the time, and in fact most gametophytes
are unable to perform their reproductive function.
Haploformica produces various different specialised gametophytes
for different functions. The majority of gametophytes are workers, spending
most of their time gathering food. They also produce gametophytes specialised
for defence, able to attack any animal threatening the plant, and they can send
out gametophytes that act as scouts.
 |
| A sample of specialised gametophytes |
Haploformica trees
are also able to produce male gametophytes, which are able to travel great
distances to other Haploformica plants to merge with any female gametophytes inside.
Any female gametophytes these plants produce never leave them, and unlike other
gametophytes they can’t move on their own. Male gametophytes have a feathery
appendage on their backs that allows them to be blown in the wind to cover
greater distance, which they can also pull down if they wish to drop or stay on
the ground.
When a tree grows a seed, this seed is then taken by a
worker gametophyte to a suitable location. Unlike many other species in the class
Immota they are much less active in their early years, once they start growing
from their seed. Other immotans are active at first before finding a
suitable location, then remain sessile.
The trees control their gametophytes with pheromones, and gametophytes
also interact with each other this way to an extent. Like most mobile plants
they do possess very rudimentary intelligence, in spite of seeming like an
ordinary sessile plant, so they’re able to recognise danger and command their
gametophytes in response to their surroundings. They even possess simple eyes.
Their gametophytes are also capable of limited cognition, but to a far lesser
extent than the trees themselves.
Taxonomic classification
Tree: Amthalassavitae
Domain: Parvigrana
Kingdom: Ramipedes
Phylum: Magnisemina
Class: Immota
Order: Rapidasperma
Family: Haploformicaceae
Genus: Haploformica
Species: H. dumus
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