Marmokerd

The marmokerd split from its ancestor and shrank in size, allowing it to exploit different food sources and live in different biomes. It is a warm-blooded burrowing herbivore which can be likened in many ways to a Terran marmot. It has thicker, shaggier pelage, a brownish coloration matching the local soil, and large digging forelimbs. It mostly consumes leaves, roots, berries, and shrooms, and it contributes to spreading flora which utilize berries for distribution. It has gained additional setae on its carapace which contribute to keeping it warm, and its back toes now point out and diagonally forwards for better stability.

The marmokerd lives in burrows dug out with its forelimbs and tusks, often among rocks, where it hibernates over winter. It is more social than its ancestor, though not nearly to the same degree as the Terran marmot which it otherwise resembles behaviorally. It is more tolerant of others of its kind feeding from the same food source and won’t smack away juveniles. It communicates mostly using visual cues, and the sight of an especially frantic marmokerd will make other marmokerds uneasy, causing them to flee to their burrows. This behavior increases the chances that any one of them will survive an attack from a predator.

The marmokerd’s reproduction is similar to that of its ancestor. It lays eggs underground during the summer, though its litters are smaller, only about 50 per clutch. This is because juveniles are more likely to survive to adulthood than they would be living in the tundra due to the conditions being less harsh and there being more cover, though many will still be eaten by predators. The mother offers no parental care, instead sealing up the burrow and abandoning the clutch. The juveniles dig to the surface upon hatching and scatter. They reach maturity in one year and will breed multiple times over the course of a single summer.

During its evolution, the marmokerd’s transitional ancestors caused the spread of several flora into Drake Polar Scrub and beyond. Its ancestor was immune to the poisonous xidhorchia, so it stands to reason that it was also immune to the poison of its close relatives. As a result, during evolution it spread the xidhorchia, the purple poison shrub, and the toxplage, along with the non-poisonous snow puff and windbulb through spores and seeds being consumed incidentally. The marmokerd has effectively taken over the role of the long-extinct notox in spreading the toxic flora and has gone on to cause these instances of species spreading to habitats similar to the ones they lived in prior to the ice age:


 * Xidhorchia to Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Taiga, Drake Polar Woodland, and Drake Boreal


 * Mini-Flower Ketter to Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Taiga, Drake Polar Woodland, and Drake Boreal (via following its partner species)


 * Purple Poison Shrub to Drake Polar Scrub and Drake Rocky


 * Snow Puff to Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Rocky, Drake Boreal, Drake Polar Woodland, and Drake Taiga (via spores passing through digestive tract)


 * Toxplage to Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Taiga, Drake Polar Woodland, Drake Boreal, and Drake Rocky


 * Toxplage Ketter to Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Taiga, Drake Polar Woodland, Drake Boreal, and Drake Rocky (via following its partner species)


 * Windbulb to Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Boreal, Drake Polar Woodland, and Drake Taiga