Plencarrion Rasper

The plencarrion rasper evolved from and replaced the foliage worm on Huggs Island. With a relatively small population, mutations took root in the foliage worm much faster than they would otherwise. The foliage worm grew much larger and developed small lungs at the base of its head in order to sustain its new size. Its legs grew longer to sustain the increased weight and the cloaca has formed 'lips' to aid in mating. The plencarrion rasper is now too large for the brown pakahe to kill easily. Along with the increase in size the foliage worm began to switch its diet to something more robust, the decaying corpses of the various plents living on the island left by the predation of the brown pakahe and other mortalities. The radula that was once used to grind up vegetable matter developed into a tongue with a large bulb at the end covered in rough scales like sandpaper. The plencarrion rasper uses this tongue rasp to scrape the tissues off of plent corpses and swallows the small fragments of flesh without the need to chew. It finds plent corpses by smelling the air using olfactory organs lining the mouth, evolved from taste buds. The last two eyes on the plencarrion rasper's body have shifted to be right next to each other and allow it to have a better view of things behind it.

A mutation caused the plencarrion raspers to grow their vestigial 'feathers' in vast quantities during the colder parts of the year. They cover themselves with this winter coat to keep themselves warm, opting to remain active during the winter instead of hibernating. They will shed the 'feathers' in the spring and they will regrow in the fall.

Plencarrion raspers have a breeding season in the fall. They do not mate for life and will usually have different mates each breeding season. After mating each plencarrion rasper will deposit their eggs at the base of their partner's head plate. The eggs will be kept warm by the 'feathers' of their parent and will hatch towards the end of winter. The larvae hatch with their own coat of feathers and they will huddle up underneath their parent's head plate to stay warm for the remainder of the winter. The parent will use its long tongue rasp to feed the larva scraps of plent flesh. In mid-spring the larva will have grown large enough to leave their caretakers and will spread out. They will only become sexually mature once they have lived two years.