Biome: Snieppe Highland Lake

The central highlands of Karmozijnië in tropical Bloëca are quite a place. While still being a warm area located on the equator of Eryobis, the elevation of these highlands makes them significantly less tropical than the savannas and rainforest that surround them. This has granted them a sort of isolation and has allowed for a number of unique creatures to evolve here.

Located in an ancient volcanic caldera is Snieppe Lake. Long dead since, the crater has completely filled up with water and is steadily fed by equatorial rains where it creates a bit of a haven for life. Many rivers spring out from the crater and feed the savannas below.

Great flocks of Chalacheiropterans gather on the shores of the lake, feeding on the wet lushious vegetation facilitated by the lake. Large herds of Kadrians come here to lessen their thirst in peace, as no gingûrs have made their way into the lake yet. A young male decides that today is the day he tries his luck and challenges an older, battle scarred male for control of his harem. 

Meanwhile, an undisturbed Triprotodont feeds in the wet, scarlet flora, unaware it is being stalked by a hunrgy Arachnothere who's crept almost within striking range.

Such are the days near Snieppe Lake, serene yet full of life.

As it was on Earth, so it is on Eryobis that you can encounter small bird like organisms practically everywhere you go. On Eryobis these are often Stauropterygians, such as the collared buwwa's (Chipteryx collaris) that are a very common sight around Snieppe Lake, as well as much of the surrouning highlands. These small Eustauropterans are quite gregarious and seem to spend much of their days foraging and socializing with members of their community. The name we've given them, "buwwa" is an onomatopoeia for the high pitched croaks they often make. They are omnivores and feed on plant seeds, fruits and arthropods alike, as well occasionally feeding on mollusks.
   

The Snieppe kuehrn (Xenotamias snieppensis) is an Austroglire Triprotodont native exclusively to the region surrounding the lake. By comparing the DNA between these creatures and other Xenotamias in the surrounding region, it was revealed that X. snieppensis has been more or less isolated from its cousins for nearly 1 million years, leading biologists to classify it as its own species. These kuehrns are otherwise quite typical for their genus. They are largely solitary herbivores that feed mainly on tubers, hard fruits and seeds and tough vegetation.

The main predator of kuehrns and other small vertebrates around Snieppe Lake is the spotted cloull (Aranictis varius), a relatively small Bloëcatherian native to much of central Karmozijnië. Around the size of a terran ferret, cloulls are typically nocturnal hypercarnivores. Their eight limbs, equipped with four claws each, make them excellent climbers. Their diet consists mostly of small Eustauropterans, Chalacheiropterans, Triprotodonts, small Parasymmetrodactyls native to the region as well as eggs and young of larger animals like the various Kadrians they share their environment with.
 

No creature creates the soundscape of Snieppe Lake as much as the greenfoot ganx (Bloecanser viridipes) does. These Chalacheiropterans often arrive at the lake in massive flocks numbering in the thousands and fill the air with their honking calls that can be heard from miles away. Their striking blue crests and full green lips make them quite peculiar animal to look at. Yet, these vibrant colours do not appear to be sexually dimorphic, as so far all individuals recorded have them. So while the mating behaviour of these creatures is not yet fully known, it is believed that their vivid faces are used to display health, the more colourful, the healthier the individual. 

Ganxes are herbivores that feed on a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic plants, as well as including the occasional mollusk or fish in their diet.

Kadrians such as the highland surraah (Rhinokadre orestes) are an expected sight at Snieppe Lake, as they are across much of Bloëca. The first thing that becomes obvious about highland surraahs is that they are very sexually dirmophic, with the males being much more robust than females, darker and more striking in colouration and possessing large horns while the females do not. While many Menokadrids possess horns, its only in surraahs where the frontal horn that sprouts up from the end of the nasal tube is the largest. These grazing herbivores typically live in herds consisting of a single male and his harem of up to 20 females, although drinking spots like Snieppe Lake often see multiple of these herds congregating to form much larger herds. When males challenge one another for mating rights, they tend to do so by first showing off their strength and horns and try to avoid injury if possible. If opponents are equally matched, they will fight by locking horns and trying to throw the other off balance. More often than not however, these fights aren't nearly as civilised as that, with many males trying to gouge each others eyes out or some cases even attempting to break their opponents' necks. A lot of males bear scars and display broken or twisted horns from such battles. 

When faced with predators, surraahs will always flee before choosing to fight. They are very fast runners and like all Neokadrians sport large spikes on their shoulders that offer some protection against carnivores. If running is not an option for males, they will attempt to impale their assailants with their horns by charging at them.

There are obviously many more animals inhabiting the region around Snieppe Lake, but our biologists are yet to properly describe the majority of them.

Slender tailed Gingûr + Brown Flailear

On one of our first expeditions to the continent known as Guralta, we arrived at a coastal marshland. A vast salt- and brackish water delta stretched for many miles along the coastline and extended deep inland, following much of the length of the main river that fed it. 

This region of eastern Guralta is known as Kwispuulië. It is a variable land with a largely tropical, but also somewhat seasonal climate that depends on monsoons for much of its water. This vast delta however, seemed less dependent on the monsoons and appeared to be lively and moisturized for most of the year.

Disembarking from the main research vessel, a team took a couple of smaller boats to enter the delta. 

It was teeming with wildlife. Six winged insect like animals were buzzing around their ears and all over the forest they could hear the screams, cries and songs of numerous untold creatures.

At some point, they spotted a large, eight legged, vaguely mammal like creature with two long tendrils sprouting from its what appeared to be its ears. It was an Arachnothere for sure, but not one they had seen before. It appeared to be foraging along the river bank for washed up vegetation and plants growing on the waters edge.

Before long however, the peace was disturbed. 

A massive animal lunged from the water in a way reminiscent of crocodiles of Earth. As it prepared to strike, its "lower jaw" split open. Large spikes lined the jaws, perfectly adapted to impale prey.

It was over in a second...but the predator missed. It had lunged too early and came in short, allowing the Arachnothere to flee.

 

The crocodile like predator was later determined to be a Slender tailed Gingûr (Gingurius leptouros). This species is native to eastern Guralta and grows to about 7 meters long. 

Gingûrs (Ginguridae) are Parasymmetrodactyl Cryptognath Anisospondyls and are a common sight in many tropical and subtropical regions around the world.

In general, these creatures are near perfect analogues to Earth's crocodillians, being largely semi-aquatic, cold blooded ambush predators covered in osteoderms and tough scales. 

They are Anisospondyls, but there's one thing about that their appearance that does not exactly fit the stereotype: their jaws. Gingûrs possess a long "upper jaw" that, while toothless, is lined with sharp keratinized bony spikes. 

But this is no true jaw.

Rather it is an extended bone that sprouts from below the eyes. A gingûrs true jaws are below it. These jaws, like those of all Anisospondyls, open sideways to reveal a large number of teeth inside. But they, like the "upper jaw", are also lined with keratinzed bony spiked on the visendal side. 

Curiously, gingûrs possess a unique jaw mechanism that allows their true jaws to open both sideways and be moved up and down. This reveals the purpose of their strange heads. These jaws work together to impale prey and slam it against the "upper jaw". This mechanism bears some similarities to the jaws of the Haidomyrmecinae ants of Cretaceous Earth.

The eight legged creature that was initially spotted was a Brown Flailear (Kopanotus spadix), a large herbivorous Hesparachnine native exclusively to the forested regions of Kwispuulië. 

These animals possess sharp rounded beaks, perfectly adapted to cut plants with. They are toothless, but to compensate they ingest stones to function as gastroliths. 

The males of this species, similar to most flailear species, grow long tendrils from the base of their ears. These ears, unlike those of mammals, are supported by many small bones. As such, they possess a large degree of control over the motions of these "flails". 

These tendrils have rhombus shaped tips that are lined with small iridescent scales, giving them a blue, green and yellow shine. Predictably, these are used for sexual display and serve little purpose otherwise.

Cladistics: Arachnopoda

There are few creatures as synonymous with the name Eryobis as the Arachnopods. These aptly named eight legged terrestrial vertebrates can be found in nearly every corner of Eryobis and are perhaps even more recognizable than the Anispondyls they share the land with.

Nearly all Arachnopods share a similar basic body plan as they all have vaguely tetrapod like heads on bodies supported by eight spider like legs. But they are no tetrapods, nor are they even closely related. Matter of fact, they're not even Sarcopterygians. They are ray-finned fish of the order Holostei, which on Earth were represented by bowfin fish and gars.>

Arachnopods look rather little like their terran counterparts however, so how did they come to be?

Arachnopoda are part of the Octopodichthyes, a member of the "spiderfish" clade. It is hard to determine if spiderfish are a natural group or if its various members evolved their legs independently since we only observe one other taxon of spiderfish alive today, and those have four legs instead of eight.

Spiderfish in general often fossilize poorly, so we do not know a lot of their early history compared Planosolincolans, which tend to fossilize a lot better.

It is theorized that spiderfish evolved their legs when they separated a number of pelvic finrays from the main fin in order to prod the sediment for sustenance. This would have later led to them moving around on their free finrays until they developed into proper ossified legs. 

At some point, probably in the late Narthian period, some Octopodichthyans made their way to land and would give rise to the Arachnopods we are familiar with today.

As their legs sprouted from the pelvic girdle, Arachnopods needed to hypertrophy their hips in order to support their weight on land. Their pectoral fins on the other hand atrophied since the no longer really served a use on land. 

Many Arachnopods heavily reduced them or lost them completely, while one group known as the Osteotarida modified their pectoral fins to aid in detecting sounds, essentially turning them into ear pinnae.

Because of their massive pelvic girdles, that sometimes heavily resemble the plastrons of turtles, Arachnopods usually have rather stiff torsos. Their eight sprawling legs somewhat negate this issue however, since they provide the animals with a lot of mobility in several directions.

A rather peculiar feature of Arachnopods are their skulls. More specifically, their jaws.

Many Arachnopods have a unique jaw mechanism wherein both the maxilla, premaxilla are separated from the cranium and a dentary that is not connected to the rest of the mandible.

The maxilla is connected to the cranium with a joint that allows it to swivel and is able to slide in a groove in the mandible where a number of muscles and tendons connect to it, creating a "deadbolt mechanism" where the jaw can be locked at a certain angle.

When the maxilla swivels, it usually also causes the premaxilla and dentary to move.

We do not completely understand why this strange jaw mechanism evolved, but we do know that it adds a lot of strength to their jaws opening and closing.

Modern Arachnopods can for the most part be categorized as belonging to one of three groups: Dactylourae, Euarachnopoda and Pulvinopoda.

While the first two likely descend from a single ancestor that survived the catastrophic mass extinction known as the World Scarring, Pulvinopoda appears to have come from two distinct survivors of that cataclysm. Of these two lineages, the Neopulvinopods are the most successful and widespread while Polytryposternians are quite restricted in where they occur nowadays. Hence why Arachnopods are typically placed in one of three categories instead of four.

Pulvinopoda are considered to be the most primitive of the living Arachnopods. They are all ectothermic, often scaleless, amphibian like creatures that lack ear pinnae. Calling them basal would be an insult however. Their skull morphology is highly divergent from the earliest Arachnopods and has close to zero resemblance to those of the other Arachnopod groups.

The Dactylourae are perhaps the oddest of the Arachnopods. These almost exclusively arboreal creatures are most easily recognized by the claw at the end of their tails. While a number of basal genera still exist, most Dactylourans can be placed either within Kremasmasauria or Aioratheria. 

Kremasmasaurs are reptilian or and serpentine in appearance and often completely lack ear pinnae. 

Aioratheres are homeothermic and are typically covered in filaments, which are actually hair like keratin projections of the scales underneath.

Where the other Arachnopods ruled the land, the Dactylourans adapted by specializing in the arboreal lifestyle, being among the very few Arachnopods with an affinity for climbing.

The Euarachnopods are what most explorers first image when they hear the word Eryobis.

These Arachnopods tend to grow much larger than their other relatives, live mostly on the ground and are not dependent on close proximity to water for survival, so they are often much more easy to spot.

While basal Euarachnopods look rather similar on the outside, one can quickly determine their origin by examining their skulls. Usually, they can either be placed in Pseudozygomia or Panhesparachnes.

Both these groups have a temporal fenestra in their skull, but they evolved them independently and from different structures.

Pseudozygomians evolved a fenestra by closing a section of the oral cavity in order to create more muscle attachments and to reinforce the skull. Pseudozygomians can mostly be found in the eastern hemisphere of Eryobis, existing in parts of Tlèëa, Lotharca and Rubiëra, with the subgroup Rubiarachnes being almost exclusively restricted to Rubiëra.

Panhesparachnes evolved their fenestra by forming a bony ring to give more support to the eye and thus essentially splitting the orbit in two. Basal Panhesparachnes often don't have a completely formed fenestra, but all members of Arachnotheria do.

Arachnotheres, the famous spider beasts of Eryobis, are fully endothermic and like the Aioratheres, are covered in hair derived from thin projections on their scales.

Arachnotheres can be found on every continent except Rubiëra and possesses a great number of families, but most of them can be placed in Bloëcatheria, Kentrotaria or Hesparachnes.

Perceived rodent analogues

Among small endothermic animals, a rodent like bodyplan has appeared many times throughout history. Think about mammals like rodents, hyraxes, lagomorphs, multituberculates, diprotodonts but also synapsids like dicynodonts and many more that have evolved to be small, mostly herbivorous critters, often with equipped with large incisors or beaks designed for cutting.
It should therefore come as no surprise that a similar phenomenon of convergent evolution can be seen on Eryobis. So far we have recorded seven groups of rodent analogues on Eryobis that all evolved independently. Among the Arachnotheres there are three, and among the Anisospondyls there are at least four.

The creatures depicted here are all generalised forms of with characteristics most often seen in members of their clades.

Top row, left: All members of this group of Arachnotheres, named Kentrotaria, appear to have feet split in the middle tipped with a number of smaller claws. Their tails are usually fairly long and their ears are tipped with venomous spurs that can break off and regrow.

Top row, middle: Not quite Arachnotheres, there appears to be a group of Dactylourans, called Scalprodensida, that fill niches comparable to squirrels and other arboreal rodents and to some extend, primates.

Top row, right: Dubbed Cathetirhinoids, these curiously shaped Bloëcatherian Arachnotheres are a surprisingly common sight around our settlements in western Miesjeta, seemingly attracted by our activities. These typically small creatures have two long probe like nostrils that sport long whiskers. They have great control over these appendages and can often be seen vigorously moving them while they look for food like a pair of antennae.

Bottom row, left: By far the most well documented rodent analogues of Eryobis are the Triprotodonta, called “Dozjemoigh” by the natives. These creatures are found on every major landmass except for Hatémica and like actual rodents, can vary in size from a small mouse to several hundred kilograms. Triprotodonts are one of the three major clades of the Liomedactylae, the terrestrially dominant group of Trapezostome Anisospondyls and are quite odd at that. Their inhaling spiracles are pointed outwards and their auditory plates are flat and circular. But their most defining trait is their mouth. Like the aquatic Fermourodonts, they have convergently evolved their jaws to work as three mouth parts, with both mandibles coming down on the trapezium below them. Each of these mouthparts sports a single tooth at the tip, earning them their name.

Bottom row, middle left: There appears to be two different kinds of rodent like Effingodactyl Cryptognaths. One of these appears to be very basal on the family tree, possibly splitting off before even the Chalacheiroptera split off. Not much is known about these creatures besides some footage few trail cameras.

Bottom row, middle right: The second line of rodent like Effingodactyls actually resemble hyraxes or small notoungultes more than rodents. Being small hoofed critters that feed almost exclusively on plant matter. They are distantly related to other hoofed Effingodactyls and it remains a bit unclear whether or not this group is monophyletic.

Bottom row, right: The final identified group of rodent like creatures are the Skalisorhynchids, a clade of Eusymmetrodactyl Cryptognaths whose affinities remain unclear, but are obviously part of the "Polyotoalosia". They have a combination of very derived and quite primitive traits among Eusymmetrodactyls, so where and when they came from is a mystery, but by the present they are very successful and widespread, only being surpassed by the Triprotodontid, which often seem to drive them to niches they wouldn’t normally occupy or straight up outcompete them.