Hang-Gliding Pinyuk

The hang-gliding pinyuk split from its ancestor, becoming a living oxymoron. Somehow, this 5-legged superficially goat-like creature has unlocked the secrets of soaring without having powered flight, nor even being capable of evolving it from its current gliding method, and gone straight from life as an arboreal parachuter in the forest to gliding as high as 2 kilometers above the open ocean. This brings up a very important question: How on Sagan 4 did that happen?

This transition began when Tree Pinyuks in Yokto Temperate Riparian migrated south to Yokto Salt Marsh. There, they used Mangrovecrystals the same way they used Vesuvianite Trees, climbing them like a Terran goat would. They began to eat the crystals from these trees more often than anything else, and they gained longer flank feathers and hollow bones so that they could leap between trees without falling into the wet marsh below. This was aided in part by the thermals generated by Colonial Bubblgea, and they learned to glide towards those to get a significant upwards boost. They became smaller to suit this lifestyle more and more, gradually becoming more feather than pinyuk, as it both made them lighter and allowed them to climb through denser branches.

Over time, these transitional forms got so good at gliding that they could travel between the more scattered mangroves in the coastal areas further south, in Soma Temperate Coast. Their flank feathers functioning like the numerous airfoils of slotted wings, they were able to glide very far—in fact, when they took advantage of thermals, they could gain height and glide indefinitely. This is similar to how Terran humans can gain height when using unpowered gliders. As they could reach cloud height by gliding in a circle within the thermal, they could very easily scan for mangroves and floating flora over hundreds of kilometers without traveling far from home. As a result of this, combined with regular dispersal caused by mangrovecrystals breaking away from the seabed, they rapidly dispersed all over the ocean.

The hang-gliding pinyuk's hindquarters are very unusual in that they have seemingly moved from its back end to its midsection. This was able to occur because of a lesser-known detail of the anatomy of terrestrial spondylozoans; despite their tetrapod-like appearance, they actually lack a true pelvis and, by default, the hind legs are supported solely by a muscular sling, similar to the forelegs. This means that, at least in species with primitive hindlimb anatomy such as pinyuks, they can relatively easily have their position shifted, though this is not usually selected for because the support they provide for the rear end is very useful and shifting them forward makes mating somewhat more difficult for males because their own legs get in the way. In this case, however, doing so shifted the hang-gliding pinyuk's center of gravity forward, which in turn makes it far more balanced and stable in the air, as it is no longer back-heavy. This has had the side effect of making "hexapod" mutations—where the tail limb branches at the base—no longer automatically crippling, though 6-legged individuals usually do not survive to adulthood; while they are able to run and glide just as well as their 5-legged siblings, the reduced left-right flexibility of the tail limb makes them poor climbers.

The hang-gliding pinyuk's ears have fully disconnected from its eyes and the cartilage "ribbing" which crossed the tympanum is now absent. This grants it even better hearing than its ancestor (and once again better than any other "dweller" thus far), despite no longer having a "mammal-eared" silhouette. The hang-gliding pinyuk lives in and feeds from various tall flora, both floating in the open sea and forming mangroves in coasts and estuaries, and constructs its nests from fallen leaves, twigs, roots, and smaller floating flora it gathers from nearby, as well as its own shed feathers. Its feathers are not waterproof, so after swimming around to forage for floating nest material, it must bask to dry off. When at rest, its flank feathers splay outwards at an angle, but they can also be pulled up or flattened against its side. They are attached to its ribs and tail leg bones, preventing them from being torn out by rough winds.

Like its ancestor, the hang-gliding pinyuk is sexually dimorphic, with males (pictured) having an orange crest which is completely absent in females. Though it lives in smaller groups than before (though groups of 40 are still possible, they are limited by the size and number of trees nearby), it is still polygamous, and males fight one another ritualistically for the right to mate. Using its passive flight ability, males from other trees or mangroves may migrate from afar to mate with unrelated females. As mentioned previously, the change to the hindlimbs makes mating more difficult; to solve this, the male will mount the female diagonally instead of straight from behind and rest one of his hindlimbs on her back to keep it out of the way. With somewhat fewer current predators and less livable space in its chosen environment, it only lays 16-24 eggs at a time.

The hang-gliding pinyuk is a common sight aboard Topship Shrog nests, due to the large number of trees together on a single platform encouraging it to land there when dispersing. Topship shrogs are generally tolerant of hang-gliding pinyuks, as while they eat the leaves from the trees making up their nest, they are generally harmless in small numbers.