Arboreal Flunejaw

The arboreal flunejaw split from its ancestor, the rainforest flunejaw. The evolution of the bighorn krugg and its eating of flunejaw eggs took a toll on the flunejaw population. Some responded simply by being more protective of their eggs, but some took a different route: they began climbing the newly evolved tribranch grovecrystal, then the tallest flora in their environment. Regaining their distant ancestor's mucus-coated eggs, but also keeping the eggs hard-shelled, they could lay eggs on the 'bark' of the grovecrystals. To climb trees, they had to become smaller, so they became half as large as their ancestor.

They also developed more dexterous claws, gaining an additional toe on each foot to help grasp the bark. They are too small to maintain their ancestor's grovecrystal-mimicking disguise, so they instead are simply camouflaged very well to the bark of the grovecrystal (with their back plates assuming the color of its roots) to protect themselves from their larger ancestor. As an added protection, they now have spines on all of their back plates. Another curious feature is that their farthest-back pair of eyes have been extended backwards and act much like the eyes of chameleons, able to rotate so that they can see behind themselves.