Shaggy Glasseater

The shaggy glasseater replaced its ancestor, the polar glasseater. The hard armored scales on its body have evolved into soft proto-feathers which help insulate it from the cold. It still has the armored scales on its legs for protection. They are even larger than their ancestor and travel in large herds.

Like their ancestors they prefer to eat small glass flora, however they have expanded their diet to larger glass flora such as the glassleaf. Their stomachs have a tolerance for eating snow. However they cannot to it too much or risk lowering their core temperature. Eating snow also means they do not have to find a source of water as often.

Like their ancestor they have very strong grinding teeth that can break down the outer covering of the glass flora. Their chin-spike can uproot them so they can chew them whole. They also must swallow grinding stones in their newly evolved gizzard. This helps mash up the parts they did not crush with their teeth. Their mouth and digestive tract is very tough in order not to get cut by the glass flora shards and their digestive juices are even stronger to help in digestion.

Their "eye-ears" have gotten smaller to help reduce heat loss but they can still hear and see with them. They communicate with bellowing calls and travel in herds of 30 to 50 members. The males fight over females by jousting with their chin-spikes. Males chin-spikes are much larger than females. When battling they will rear up on their tail and back legs and then come crashing down on their other male's head. This can sometimes result in puncture wounds or even death.

They build mound nests out of rocks, dirt and their own proto-feathers for their hard-shelled eggs. During incubation females will tend to the mound to make sure it is the right temperature by taking material either on or off the mound. They must do this in the summer when the ground is not frozen. Once hatched the female will protect the nest while the male goes to find food for his mate and offspring. They lay around 3 to 4 eggs at a time.