Scrambled Shrew

The Scrambled Shrew split from its ancestor and got smaller, claiming a smaller generalist/scavenger niche. It is named for 2 features: its tendency to scramble about wildly to evade predators, and the fact that its entire genome has been duplicated, resulting in massive genetic instability and a high rate of mutations which duplicate tissues, organs, and body parts with an occasional horrifying scrambling effect. The latter feature is highly notable due to its fairly high birth rate, comparable to that of a terran rat, and as such it has also developed reasonable tolerance to these duplication mutations occurring.

Like a terran rat, the Scrambled Shrew is an omnivore that will eat just about anything. While it has a strong preference for leafy flora, it will also happily consume eggs, carrion, crystals, glass flora, and mesofauna. Like its ancestor, it is generally solitary and lives in burrows. It breeds up to 6 times a year and has 5-12 joeys at a time. Its offspring are born helpless, living off of milk in their mother's pouch for the first few weeks of their lives. Its varied diet has allowed it to spend a little energy developing sexual display structures in the form of wrist, ankle, tail, and ear tufts.