Sayront

Sayronts are covered in scales, giving them an overall pine-cone-like shape. They are giganototherms roughly the size of small sheep, who live in herds of six to eight individuals.

Due to the intense competition for blackflora such as sunstalks, it avoids that entirely by specializing in less-abundant but largely unexploited resources of purple flora, most notably Fermi Tuffdras that wash ashore. They are most common outside of Mangrovecrystal groves, for Mangrovecrystals make poor habitat for them and their grey-and-black bodies are awfully conspicuous against yellow-and-green Mangrovecrystals. Still, they occasionally venture into the Mangrovecrystal groves to eat purpleflora. They do not typically swim.

Their “scales” are tiny, former wings (modified shoulder-clubs) that consist of spongy keratinous tissue, blubber, and some skin. The scales on its upper flanks, roughly near its shoulders, retain significant mobility, while in others, the scales can be moved just a little. They can expose the underlying skin as a form of thermoregulation, either to heat up or cool down. The scales around the rear only develop in adult Sayronts. Their primary function is clasping onto the other’s hip-scales while mating, although it can be folded over the rear during very cold weather to protect against frostbite.

Reproduction
Sayronts make three to four young a year: more than than would be expected for something of its size and metabolism. It’s a holdover from an ancestor, the Leaping Flapper, with its very high death rate borne of flying accidents and poor suitability to a polar clime. Sayronts mature faster than its ancestor, with a short generation time. They migrate along beaches not because it can’t withstand the cold of its habitats, but because females require a lot of food to generate so much young.

Along with the Snapjaw Sandcrock and Quadracroc, they are the only Fermisaurs (at the time of its evolution) to use internal fertilization. It was a very useful trait to evolve, as the female lays her eggs directly into her pond chamber organ and does not secrete them outside her body. Much like a tailed frog (Ascaphus), male Sayronts fertilize the eggs using extensions of the cloaca that resemble a small tail. As the Sayronts’ environment is often cold and they are technically ectothermic, with limited ability to heat up their own, the structure is retractable and typically kept inside the body. Sayronts mate while standing rear to rear.

Predators
Although too large and well-armored for some predators, they are appealing prey for others, especially Seashrogs. They have rich, flavorful meat that tastes of the sea, and their protective scales are no match for Seashrogs’ formidable spears. Seashrogs often kill them by stabbing them in their unarmored faces.

The color brown makes them nervous, for it is a rare color on Fermi, found mostly on Seashrogs: one of their chief predators. In temperate areas, they are most active in the morning and evenings, just to avoid the diurnal Seashrogs.

Other Details
A rare mutation can color Sayront’s internal organs blue, similarly to its eyes. This is normally impossible to tell in a live Sayront, until one sees blue-tinted cloacal extensions of the male.

A Sayront is surprisingly agile if there are obstacles in its path; it can still jump if needed.