Hockel

Hockels lay eggs inside gumjorn stembuds, rather than dead bodies. As such, they are no longer bound by the availability of dead bodies. Adult female hockels have a stiff, narrow, pointed tail. The female's cloaca (from which the female lays eggs) is located at the underside of the tail-tip. Its tail functions as an ovipositor for inserting its froglike eggs into gumjorns. If it cannot pierce the photosynthetic windows of the gumjorn with its tail, the female hockel will briefly gnaw at the window to create an opening. Once the eggs are inserted, the gumjorn's wound scars over with a chitinous covering. Its eggs are very small for its body size, ranging from 0.7 cm to 1 cm. It lays about twenty eggs per reproductive season, and can lay hundreds of eggs in its lifetime. Not all the eggs it lays inside gumjorn stembuds are fertilized. The unfertilized eggs, which are much smaller than the fertilized eggs, function as food for the larvae once they hatch. Occasionally it lays multiple fertilized eggs inside a gumjorn, leading to multiple larvae. There is insufficient space and resources inside the stembud to support multiple larvae, and the larvae that hatched first will devour its siblings while they are still inside the egg. The gumjorn stembud acts as an external shell for the vulnerable eggs, protecting it from predators who eat thornback-descendant eggs and larvae. It also acts as a food larder, for when the hockel has eaten all the unfertilized eggs it will start eating the watery tissue inside the stembud. However, living inside such a small space has its problems. Lacking a sanitary spot to deposit its wastes, the larval hockel will store its wastes inside a outpocket of its gut until it metamorphoses. Like frogs, hockels undergo metamorphosis, with the adult stage having lungs, limbs, and terrestrial adaptations. Unlike tadpoles (and its ancestors), the larval hockel lacks gills. Instead it directly absorbs oxygen through its skin. Also unlike tadpoles, it has tiny eyes and is effectively blind until its later stage of metamorphosis. In this later stage of its metamorphosis, it develops small hind limbs and small lungs. The development of its nostrils is not perfectly synchronized with its lung development, so until its nostrils develop it must breathe through its mouth. Larval hockels' metabolism lowers when exposed to cold temperatures, including cold seawater. Adult hockels are small, semiaquatic herbivores. Though adapted to walk on land, they spend most of their time away from dry land, whether partly submerged, completely submerged, or just basking on floating platforms on the sea. Usually such floating platforms are marine tamow nests, but they can also be wooden debris from fallen obsiditrees or even the backs of slow-moving tilepillars. Adult hockels' large, somewhat flipper-like hind feet help them swim. However, they swim relatively slowly. Though their bright yellow color seems ill-suited for Dass Temperate Beach's white sand, it helps them blend into simialrly-colored twinkiiros and twinkorals, which they feed upon. To a lesser extent, they also feed on marine chitjorns. Like many thornbacks, hockels have the ability to change the color of their skin to some extent. However, hockels are limited to changing the color of their bib-like markings from blue to pink. Hockels are not social fauna, but nonetheless may be found in small groups while basking. In the mating season, males puff out their chests to expose their bibs and change its color to pink. If interested, the females will also change their bib color to pink. Like many thornback descendants, hockels are deaf. They communicate through changing bib color and body language. Body language gestures include gnashing their beak-like mouths, keeping their mouths open, lifting their hind legs, alternating lifting hind legs, and stomping their hind legs. When calm, they may close one or two of their three pairs of eyes. (the individual shown in the picture is relatively calm and is grooming itself) Its long, hockey-stick-shaped spines are attached to a sturdy, thickened apparatus of vertebrae. These spines make it unwieldy to eat, causing them to be lodged in a predator's throat. When faced with predators, it slips into the nearest body of water and stays immobile. When among twinkiiros or twinkorals, it blends in with the environment, so this works very well. In non-matching environments, however, it is easily spotted. Much like bats, hockels have a notably strong immune system and can act as a reservoir for disease.