Ascendophrey

The ascendophrey split from its ancestor. It has turned its attention skyward and begun to feed on flying prey. Taking advantage of thermals and utilizing its advanced respiratory system, it is able to soar as high as 10 km above the ground, which is higher than most other species are even capable of breathing, let alone flying. Its largest pair of eyes have been specialized, no longer open to air and bearing a more complex retinal structure to greatly improve its image-forming ability. It soars over a myriad of different biomes in search of food, but nests among rocks in various open montane biomes. It cannot fly forever and must eventually land; however, it is easily able to fly far enough to cross biomes it would never sleep or nest in within a single day, owing in part to the supercontinent's strange shape and narrow biomes. This has allowed it to nest in several disconnected mountain biomes.

The ascendophrey has two main methods of killing its prey. One is to swoop down and snatch it with its jaws. However, the ascendophrey also hunts prey which is too large to carry. To kill these, it utilizes a new trick: diving hooves-first directly into the head, smashing its prey's brain with so much force that it is instantly converted to mush and may even be ejected out the mouth. It will then follow the resulting carcass to the ground to eat. When hunting its fellow flying saucebacks, it instead aims for the sauce plate to the same effect.

As an adult, the ascendophrey preys almost exclusively on other soaring creatures. All species which soar effectively enter the "troposphere" biome for hours on end, which allows it to feed on species that are not technically listed as sharing its range when it flies above their native biomes. When hunting large prey, it can employ mob hunting tactics, but it otherwise usually hunts alone. It generally stays close to one of the biomes it can nest in, but because the supercontinent is so weirdly shaped and the non-montane biomes are so narrow, it has access to the tropical and temperate skies above nearly all biomes.

The ascendophrey nests communally among rocks in the mountains in warm months, as it is a poor climber and cannot nest in trees. Early on, it regurgitates meat for its chicks to eat, but once they are able to fly they leave their parents' care to hunt on their own. Independent juveniles are generally more solitary, though as they grow older they will begin practicing mob hunting, and they eat smaller flighted prey close to the ground for the first year of their lives. Very few survive to adulthood, as they are vulnerable to predation early in life.