Racing Rainbowtail

With the evolution of the bannertail, most of the rainbowtails were outcompeted and thus died out. The only exception was the small population out in the Drake Plains that were able to scrape out a meager existence, but they were not thriving by living only in the plains. The region had inconsistent amounts of rain, which was often not enough for their eggs and tadpoles to survive development. As such, the rainbowtail’s numbers dwindled with every passing decade as old individuals began to die and not enough young were surviving to adulthood and thus replace them. The future of the population looked grim, but this intense selective pressure also meant any adaptations that gave an individual an advantage over others in terms of reproduction would immediately be able to spread through the tiny population.

This presented itself with females who began to retain the eggs inside their bodies for longer and longer periods, while the eggs adapted to develop inside the mother. This got to the point where the mother never lays the eggs and they hatch within her body as small juveniles, having developed past the tadpole stage within their eggs before being born. Being born in their juvenile form, these youngsters would be able to survive without the need of spawning pools and thus cutting the population’s ties with spawning pools for good. By now, the rainbowtail was no more, the Drake Plains population having evolved into a new taxon. This new group of organisms are now known as the racing rainbowtail. The genetic bottleneck they went through has left its mark, however, as the racing rainbowtails have low genetic diversity as a consequence.

In many ways, the racing rainbowtails are similar to their ancestors except modified for pursuit hunting. In order to run for longer, the armor present on their backs has reduced in size, in order to lessen the amount of weight they need to carry. The legs, meanwhile, have elongated to increase their stride length, which increases the amount of ground they cover as they run compared to their ancestor. This all works into their hunting strategy, as they primarily hunt small to mid-sized herbivores by chasing them into exhaustion. The group will also use hunting tactics, with some lying up ahead in ambush while others chase prey towards them and cutting off any escape routes. Once they catch a victim, the pack will use their taloned hands, hooked beaks, and sharp teeth to take them down.

Much like their ancestors and close relatives, the racing rainbowtails are social animals, with pack life now being a critical part of rearing the young. These packs typically consist of three mating pairs and their young, though they can be larger depending on food availability. This social life comes into play once a female breeds, as retaining the eggs inside her for longer periods of time means extra weight for about 2 months. This limits her hunting prowess, and thus a female who can rely upon her mate and other members of the pack assisting the female capture prey has a better chance then a solitary individual who may fail more hunts than if they were not pregnant. Once it's time, the mother will give birth to 4-6 baby racing rainbowtails. When they are born, they already look like the juveniles of their ancestors but with several key differences, like a more blunt beak, under-developed armor, and only small teeth. This makes the process of giving birth less painful for the mother, but it also means they can’t hunt prey and survive on their own.

This results in the pack having one pair guard the young while the rest of them hunt more prey than normal to feed the juveniles. During times of hardship, the dominant pair will kill the offspring of the other mated pairs in the pack before feeding them to their own, as there is likely not enough food to feed them all and their young get priority. In the same vein, they are highly territorial during times when food is scarce, and will drive away the groups of other racing rainbowtails. Once the young grow in their teeth and the hook on their beak becomes larger, the pack can begin to take them on hunts though they will primarily hunt small game early on.

Due to the need for spawning pools being nonexistent, the need for constructing highly advanced materials like adobe was no longer needed as so this was lost overtime. This also resulted in a slight loss of intelligence, though they are not stupid by any means. Hunting in packs and the language of their tails along with caring for their young and digging caches to store food still requires a decent amount of brain power so the loss of intelligence is only minor.

Just like their ancestor, the racing rainbowtail uses their tail lights for communication and have specific meanings for each color they can use. Compared to their ancestors, however, their language is much simpler. Each of their colors is described as below:

Red=aggression

Blue=submission

Green=greetings

Purple=affection

Yellow=guidance(mainly used for youngsters to follow their mothers)

Orange=dominance/intimidation

White=alarm signal

Rapidly flashing all colors at once one after the other=mating display

Once the youngsters reach sexual maturity, they are old enough to fend for themselves and are kicked out of the pack to live on their own. Females often go alone for a while until they find a mate while a group of male racing rainbowtails that come from the same pack will stick together until they pair off with unrelated females. On certain occasions, however, racing rainbowtails that are brothers form a strong enough bond that they may stick together, even when one of them pairs up with a female. In these circumstances, the brother(s) will assist the mated pair with the care of the pair’s offspring as if they were their own.