Sklithraderm

When the argusraptor complex evolved, they were superbly effective predators that effectively caused a minor local extinction event. For the snowplowers, these new predators would lead to their rapid decline, being pushed out of the Dixon-Darwin Boreal biome and into Alpine areas. While some responded by becoming semiaquatic, leading to the mudplower, another lineage of snowplowers would respond to these new predators by developing more dramatic adaptations. This included the development of a fuzzy coat, which among other features led to these populations splitting off and evolving into the sklithraderm.

The sklithraderm’s fuzzy coat is derived from the wooden spines that ring around the butt nostril of their ancestor. The woody filaments that cover its body have a basic branching structure, causing them to interlock with one another and trap air next to their skin. Because of their woody filaments, the sklithraderm is able to live in the cold alpine regions despite being much smaller than its ancestors. The underbelly remains bare of woody filaments, however, since the sklithraderm still urinates through the skin like other plents. The sklithraderm still retains an enlarged ring of spines around its butt-nostril to protect it from things trying to bite it.

The smaller size of the sklithraderm means they require less food to survive, while their woody filaments means they can have less blubber and become slimmer. This allows the sklithraderm to adapt to running away from danger such as the short-necked shrew or montemsnappers. The carotenoids present in their skin and plates give the sklithraderm a yellowish coloration, allowing them to blend in with the golden soil in the alpine regions they call home for most of the year. Their beaks, claws, hooves, and butt-nostril spines have a modified form of lignin within them that makes them stiffer and stronger than normal wood. This has resulted in its beak being as hard as chitin, similarly to the gryphler, allowing the sklithraderm to expand its diet on the kinds of flora it can feed upon. They will use their snowplow-shaped beak to push away snow and uproot roots and tubers, but will also use their beak to feed on lower growing flora such as crystal swordgrass. While they primarily get their energy from eating flora, the sklithraderm’s plates are still full of chlorophyll that still use sunlight for photosynthesis.

The large amounts of snow and the intense cold of the winters means sklithraderms will head down the slopes and out of the alpine biomes they typically live in before entering the Dixon-Darwin Boreal habitat. Here, their patterns help them partially blend in by resembling large rocks found in the area, but they still are easier to spot than in the alpine biomes. This puts them at a higher risk of predation from things such as the argusraptor complex. Out in the open areas of the alpine biomes, few things would kill a sklithraderm because their sharp senses usually meant the potential predator would be spotted way before it could actually attack. In the dense obsidoak forests, however, predators have the advantage. Because of the higher risk of attack, the herding behavior of sklithraderms means more pairs of eyes and ears to detect predators before it is too late to escape. If an individual is cornered, they can use the redeveloped horns on their beak to gore an attacker. Despite their best attempts to watch each other's backs, the winter months are when the mortality rates of sklithraderms skyrockets.

To counter this, the sklithraderm breeds much more frequently than their ancestor. The males use their beaks in shoving contests as a test of strength. The herd’s still consist of either a single alpha male and a bunch of females or bachelor herds with males in those bachelor herds challenging the alpha male in typical herds for breeding rights. They only do this in the alpine regions during the summer, however, as such a contest down in the boreal biome would alert predators of their presence. Meanwhile, males will breed with the females in their herd while they are in the boreal area, so that females will give birth to around 4-6 young once they head back up the slopes as summer returns. Females will dig conical dirt nests to give birth to the young, which then take 2-3 months to develop. After 2-3 months, they are strong enough to leave the nests behind and follow the mother which also allows them to flee from potential danger and thus stand a chance of survival once the species travels back down into the boreal habitat during the winter months.