Long-Tailed Flunejaw

The Long-Tailed Flunejaw replaced its ancestor and outcompeted the Mountain Flunejaw. As its name suggests, it has a very long tail. This is used to assist it in keeping its balance on rough terrain, and is among the key factors in its replacement of its ancestors. The length of the tail varies somewhat among individuals, usually being longer in subspecies found in rougher, harder-to-climb terrain. Like its ancestor, it is capable of generating some of its own body heat; however, it is significantly better at doing so, being able to maintain enough body heat that it doesn’t need to bask at all. It is not yet an endotherm, however, but a mesotherm; it depends on the environment to raise its body temperature above its maintained minimum. It has lost its spikes, as they did not help it gain heat at all and were actually the main part of its body losing heat at any given time, contrary to the erroneous descriptions of its ancestors and relatives. It is found across the entire range of elevation of its ancestor and ancestor’s ancestor.

Similar to its ancestor, the Long-Tailed Flunejaw hunts by stalking its prey and pouncing. Its long tail can be swung to change trajectory in midair if needed, such as if it misses its pounce and is headed straight for a cliff. Its blind spot is greatly extended due to an important change it has made; its eyes are arranged in a triangle, as having eyes further back would restrict its jaw muscles and having eyes along its snout would make its upper jaw incredibly fragile and prone to shattering. The extension to its blind spot this has created is mitigated by the fact that, like its ancestor, it can turn its head to look around for predators. Like its ancestor, it will kill and eat injured soaring phlyer nestlings.

The Long-Tailed Flunejaw has lost its colorful neck scales, as the dim environment created by the prominence of black shade trees made them too difficult to see. Instead, its body scales are iridescent black: cryptic in the dark, but shimmeringly beautiful when they catch light. The iridescence is present in both males and females, but it’s less prominent in the latter. Similar to its ancestor, it has poor senses of taste and hearing. It is not completely deaf, despite lacking external ears; it can sense vibrations using its jaws, similar to many “earless” tetrapods on Earth.

Being a poor digger due to its hooves, the Long-Tailed Flunejaw sleeps in dens within natural caves or abandoned burrows created by other fauna within its range. It kills more kruggs than it will eat at a time and stashes them around its territory to consume later, especially for over the winter in the southern parts of its range. Stashed kruggs may still technically be alive, just with crushed or removed heads, preserving them while preventing their escape.

Like its ancestor, the Long-Tailed Flunejaw is most active at night. However, in the dark, oddly warm shadows of the Obsidoaks, night and day can sometimes be indistinguishable; as a result, it’s possible to find Long-Tailed Flunejaws out and about even in the middle of a sunny day.