Redplate Pasakerd

A split from the Lumbering Pasakerd, the Redplate Pasakerd has become an absolute giant for its kind, which it then puts to great use. While it can technically still graze on low-growing flora, the Redplate Pasakerd prefers to feed on various species of tree in the area. Instead of evolving to be taller and thus reach the leaves and fruit of the various trees, this species of pasakerd developed adaptations to knock down the trees. A heavily reinforced skull with wide crests helps with pushing the tree down, while the limbs of the Redplate Pasakerd are much more robust to better deal with the stresses revolving around such activities. Once the tree is knocked down, the powerful jaws possessed by all pasakerds come into use as the Redplate Pasakerd will rip apart the branches into chunks small enough to be swallowed whole. Because there is almost no chewing at all, the Redplate Pasakerds have an enlarged digestive tract in a similar fashion to the Russet-Ridged Pasakerd, which can then extract as much nutrients as they can from what they eat. The large guts also partially resulted in the Redplate Pasakerd’s great size, as a larger body was needed to house the enlarged digestive tract. This greater size was also due to the extra bulk being needed to knock down trees, as well as providing more insulation from the cold since larger bodies retain heat better than smaller ones. Even with the large gut and its great size, however, the Redplate Pasakerd would still take a long time to properly digest wood, which often gets ingested as they consume the branches of trees. To get around this, Redplate Pasakerds regularly swallow small stones, which act as gastroliths and grind food into a mushy and more digestible pulp within their stomach.

Unlike their ancestors, the Redplate Pasakerd is completely solitary as an adult, since their diet of trees doesn't allow for multiple individuals feeding together and their great size deters all but the largest carnivores in the area. If a Redplate Pasakerd is being harassed by a Baron Signaltail, one of the few creatures that can actually take them down, its adaptations to pushing down trees work just as well with ramming potential threats. The powerful jaw and large tusks can also leave a nasty bite on anything that they consider a threat or competition. The very feeding habits of the Redplate Pasakerd also partially help deal with competition, as the knocking down and devouring of trees means forests are opened up, which in turn means large browsers like the Sailmail and the Double-Lipped Sauceback find themselves being squeezed out, resulting in these herbivores being much rarer in areas they share with Redplate Pasakerds. To prevent total deforestation and thus a loss of food, Redplate Pasakerds are still nomadic, moving around to patches of old growth where there will certainly be more food to feed on. If they can’t find any trees around, a Redplate Pasakerd can fall back on grazing upon low-growing foliage even though it's not specialized for grazing like its cousins.

Because of their massive bulk, the Redplate Pasakerd can’t dig out burrows anymore so they instead will make a shallow pit in the ground with their powerful forelimbs. From there, they will generally produce around a hundred eggs in a single batch before burying them. After the eggs are buried, the parent will abandon them to their fate. Many eggs are often eaten by small nest raiders, and the young that do hatch and dig their way to the surface are still vulnerable to predators. These youngsters will stick together for mutual protection, relying on numbers to live long enough where they can rely on their bulk to deter threats. Taking about three years to reach full size, the diet of the yearlings is more like their ancestors since they mostly graze on low-growing foliage and only occasionally push down saplings to eat. When they reach their second year of life, the young Redplate Pasakerds will be large enough to go their separate ways and switch to their adult diets. It is also in their second year that these creatures reach sexual maturity. By the third year, only one or two individuals from a single clutch will be still alive, though by that point they can live for a pretty long time, sometimes as long as seventy years.