Arkcrafting Hookphlyer

The Arkcrafting Hookphlyer split from its ancestor, becoming increasingly intelligent in a post-mass extinction world. One noticeable change was the much larger size and wingspan of this species, which in turn meant they could tackle larger prey and also soar more efficiently. Another big difference is the fact this species has become much more generalistic in feeding habits, tackling a wide range of soft bodied prey such as gilltails or oceanscooters. When hunting aquatic prey, the Arkcrafting Hookphlyers will soar above the water, watching for movement at the surface. If they detect something and decide it is prey, they tuck their wings in and dive into the water. This is where some changes to their beak come into play, with the tips of the upper and lower bill coming together to form a point, unlike in their ancestors where they did not touch. This means the bill can sometimes spear prey if it's caught off guard, though more often it's instead snapped up to then be carried out of the water to a place where the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer can then process its catch. On land, this could potentially be a rock outcrop or a tree, while out at sea it's usually on their nests. Either way, the back part of the beak has not changed, possessing small serrations that can slice up the meal into smaller chunks to then be swallowed.

While a good portion of its diet is aquatic prey, the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer has actually expanded its horizons much further, even going to land to feed on small terrestrial prey or even feed on vegetation. With that last bit, the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer does go for things that are easy to digest, such as fruits and berries, but it will also feed upon soft species of flora if it can’t find those. On land, most of the small prey it can feed upon like to burrow underground, which in turn resulted in Arkcrafting Hookphlyers getting creative. As their ancestors already gathered materials to build nests in lurehums, it didn’t take that much for Arkcrafting Hookphlyers to start using these materials for other purposes. In this particular case, an Arkcrafting Hookphlyer can wait around an entrance or exit of an uksor or shellworm burrow, and jab it into anything that comes out.

Similarly to their ancestors, the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer has superb vision, allowing it to spot prey or predators from great distances. This great vision is also used efficiently for nest building, as like its ancestors the Arkcrafting Hookphlyers raise their young in nests. Unlike those ancestors, however, the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer no longer builds a nest within the Lurehum. Instead, the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer builds their nests upon Symbioraft Diaminet rafts. While the root systems of these crystal flora can be quite dangerous, the Arkcrafting Hookphlyers use the very tops of the rafts, which puts them out of harm’s way. Additionally, these phlyers also gather various materials like sticks, bones, and other debris to build up these nests before keeping them together by secreting a sticky saliva that sets like concrete, a trait already present within their ancestors. To carry the materials needed to build these rafts, the front limbs of the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer have undergone several changes. The first big change was the development of a second nail, while another was that the first nail has given way to a proper digit of sorts. When this digit flexes, the two nails lock together, which in turn gives the phlyer a firm hold on whatever it needs to carry.

All of these adaptations mean Arkcrafing Hookphlyers are superb nestbuilders. The Symbioraft Diaminet rafts that their ancestors originally started using can now be further built upon to be truly massive. While a Symbioraft Diaminet colony only gets about 6 meters wide at the most in the wild, the constructive efforts of Arkcrafing Hookphlyers mean multiple colonies can be put together and form “super rafts” where individual Symbioraft Diaminet colonies are connected by sticks, bones, and other stuff gathered from either Barlowe or Maineiac all held together by the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer’s hardened saliva. These “super rafts” prove to be ideal nesting grounds for Arkcrafing Hookphlyers, with many individuals nesting on these structures and maintaining them. Here, predators from below the waters have to deal with the deadly root systems of the Symbioraft Diaminet colonies before they could get to the phlyers on board. Meanwhile, any aerial predators would have to face the adult Arkcrafting Hookphlyers who can deal quite a nasty bite, while any terrestrial predators that might be a threat would likely be not even allowed on these rafts in the first place.

With the safety these rafts provide, the two to three offspring born from an individual parent are well protected. When it comes to raising these young, the two parents of these youngsters will take turns between gathering food and protecting the youngsters (though the colony as a whole also provides some protection). When the young are old enough to fly, they can technically leave the colony to find other colonies or start one of their own, but it's more likely that they stick around for a least a year or two to learn essential skills how to to maintain the “super rafts” or even assist their parents with rearing the next generation.

As their ancestors pretty much only nested within the mostly aquatic lurehums, Arkcrafting Hookphlyers only nest of their "super rafts", as they provide ideal conditions for rearing young that can't be replicated on land. While Arkcrafting Hookphlyers will go to land to collect materials and feed on flora and fauna in the area, they will ultimately always return to the "super rafts".

With all the foliage either consumed by the Arkcrafting Hookphlyers or used to help build their “super raft” nesting sites, it's pretty much inevitable that these phlyers would incidentally spread the flora to other areas. Specifically, this took the form of flora native to northern Barlowe being spread to the nearby continent of Maineac. After all, the continents only separated relatively recently, with only a shallow sea separating them. Additionally, the continent of Maineac has conditions quite similar to what is seen in Northern Barlowe, being relatively cold. As such, it didn’t take long for flora brought over by Arkcrafting Hookphlyers to colonize the landmass and settle in.

Of course, all of this vegetation on the rafts means a huge banquet for any herbivore that managed to get on them, which in turn resulted in many occasions where herbivores would try to hitch a ride on these rafts. Of course, such events were quite rare, but on such grand time scales as millions of years they are bound to happen at some point. The species that usually hitch a ride on the rafts are usually tiny little critters that can burrow within the debris itself and breed quickly. Of course this meant things like the Spiny Wrigum regularly hitched a ride of such rafts, but a few other organisms such as the Nomnom would also be present. As most of the larger herbivores did not exactly like getting their feet wet, species like the Icicleback never got on the rafts, meaning the only species of larger herbivore that was common on these superafts were the Iceblaster. As Iceblasters possess thorny spines and armor plating, they were relatively decent at keeping aerial predators away from Arkcrafting Hookphlyer young. Meanwhile, their particularly small size and specialized diet of eating Numflora meant they were relatively easy to maintain on these rafts. As such, Arkcrafting Hookphlyers learned to capture the little critters and bring them onto these rafts. This pseudo-domestication (which is more accurately a case of mutualism) meant Iceblasters were extremely common on the rafts, and as such were by far the most abundant small herbivores to end up on Maineiac. Whether it was by chance or as a byproduct of being enticed upon the rafts, the couple species of herbivores that stayed on the rafts would end of on Maineiac and establish populations.

While only a few herbivores traveled on the rafts, the number of carnivores that willingly got on was almost nonexistent. Larger carnivores such as the Waxfaces were seen as direct threats to Arkcrafting Hookphlyers and their young, and thus would be driven away before ever even getting on the rafts. For most of the smaller carnivores, the rafts didn't have that much to offer them since most of their prey was not on the rafts either, plus they didn't usually like getting their feet wet. Because of this, the only carnivore that willingly got on the rafts was the Divedove, a species that naturally spent a lot of its time in water and hunted small game like the Nomnom hiding within the rafts. Due to these factors, they would be the only carnivore to actually establish populations when they either washed up onto the shores of Maineiac or abandoned the rafts once they saw the continent on the horizon and swam over.

With all these things on the rafts, it was completely natural that things on them would produce waste and die. Infact, the rafts themselves often had decaying organic matter due to flora used to build them dying and starting to rot. This all would mean a huge buffet for any detritivores that could get on the rafts. This takes the form of a few species of fois being able to colonize the continent.

As all of these new arrivals landed on the landmass in wave after wave of new arrivals over the course of a few hundred thousand years, they would in turn form whole new populations fully established in the region. With so many species colonizing the area, while in turn almost nothing from Maineiac came over to Barlowe in the opposite direction, this event came to be known as the Northwestern Barlowe Mass Dispersal Event.

-- Species Dispersal --

Here is a list of all the species spread by the Arkcrafting Hookphlyer and its "super rafts".

Tundra Gemshrub is spread into Maineiac Polar Beach and Nergali Polar Beach. Numflora is spread into Maineiac Polar Beach and Nergali Polar Beach. Drakolantern is spread into Maineiac Polar Beach and Nergali Polar Beach. Needlevine is spread into Maineiac Polar Beach and Nergali Polar Beach. Scraggly Swaberry is spread into Maineiac Polar Beach and Nergali Polar Beach. Quilled Slingberry is spread into Maineiac Polar Beach and Nergali Polar Beach. Ugly Woodenberry is spread into Maineiac Polar Beach and Nergali Polar Beach. Curdledberry is spread into the Maineiac Polar Riparian. Amphibious Droopgea is spread into the Maineiac Salt Bog.

Nomnom is first spread to Nergali Polar Beach, then spreads to Maineiac Polar Beach through their eggs and young surviving on the rafts. Iceblaster is first spread to Nergali Polar Beach, then spreads to Maineiac Polar Beach by riding on the rafts.

Divedove is spread into Maineiac Polar River and Maineiac Polar Riparian by riding on the rafts.

Carpet Foi is spread into the Maineiac Salt Bog by riding on the rafts. Ittiz Foi is spread into Maineiac Salt Bog and Maineiac Polar River by riding on the rafts.