Cryorasher

The cryorasher replaces its ancestor. Cryorashers are mostly herbivores---70% of their food by volume is flora. If it finds any cloudswarmer larvae in a cryobowl, it will eat those along with the cryobowl. Minikruggs are also eaten if they don't require too much effort to eat. Cryorashers are a lighter, sandier yellow than their ancestors, with lighter spots on the forefeet, nape, and eyes. They lack a color-changing signalling patch on their necks, for, as solitary fauna, they did not need it.

Cryorashers' developmental timetables are different from their ancestors. Body development stops earlier, so the adults have reduced snout, shoulder spike, and limb length. However, hatching and larval development is still fast, with growth rates becoming slower upon gaining terrestrial form.

The cryorasher's biggest change from its ancestor is its internal nourishment of young via "bacon goo". It is called such because it is gooey, high in salt (sodium), nutritionally comparable to bacon and has a smell reminiscent of bacon. More specifically, the bacon goo is a viscous, cellular substance rich in protein and iron, essentially a slime of muscle tissue. The sodium of the bacon goo is sequestered in small, triangular, reticulated organs near the hips. After emerging from the mother, they draw upon the sodium for their growth, since it's hard for them to find sodium in the tundra.

The bacon goo is grown from the walls of the enlarged oviduct, and is similar to both the placental secretions of mammals and the thickened, nutritive skin of caelicians. Unlike either, it is actually genetically distinct from the mother. Uniquely, the gametes of the male cryorasher come in pairs that resemble two-car passenger trains. One of the gametes forms the embryo, while the other forms the bacon goo.

At "birth", the offspring are approximately one-seventh of their full size. They spend almost all their larval stage inside their mother. It is only "almost all" their larval stage because most offspring emerge with a little tail membrane still left, which is later absorbed into the body. (the picture is of a cryocracker five days after "birth". However, the cryocracker young and adults largely resemble each other.) The young are fully terrestrial and capable of eating adult foods upon "birth". Like rats, they are capable of reproduction at an early age: they can reproduce at two months. While they produce fewer offspring than their ancestor, they still have a high reproductive rate: three per litter with a minimum recovery period of three days before starting another litter.

Cryorashers can live for four years, but often don't live that long because they are popular prey for snapperkies. Incidentally, cryorashers' salt pouches are very tasty and can be prepared in a variety of ways.

Notes: "Hemotrophic viviparity" is the scientific term for "the female provides nutrients internally and has 'live' young."