Polychrome Flagthroat

The polychrome flagthroat, unlike its ancestor, is entirely aquatic. It cannot even move on land. It swims with its forelimbs and tail; the hindlimbs are of little use. While it has great vision, it cannot see as well underwater as it can in air, and instead uses its lips to find and manipulate food.

The polychrome flagthroat feeds in shallow water. It dabbles like a swan to feed, keeping its buoyancy by treading water. As its food items are very small in comparison to its size, it spends much of its time eating. Fortunately for it, its food sources are abundant, evenly distributed, and have no chemical resistance to digestion. Furthermore, some of its food options are not even competed for in its area. Its poor underwater vision may explain why it is not deterred by flashkelps' defense---since it cannot see much underwater to begin with, its vision is not painfully overstimulated like other aquatic organisms. Furthermore, its eyes, compared to other aquatic organisms, are far away from its mouth, and its horn even blocks its vision, thus shading its eyes from the flashkelps' flares. This could explain why it still has a horn even though it serves no obvious use.

The multicolored dewlap, or 'flag', is used primarily for communication with others of its kind, but it may also be used as a threat display for anything that tries to eat it. For added effect in either pursuit, it may wiggle the 'flag'. The wiggling motion is comparable to a flag flapping in the wind. As no organisms (so far) try to eat it, its unusual non-conspecific target is the carnivorous Jaydohve, which it may find threatening when it is young and small.

As the polychrome flagthroat cannot travel onto beaches, it does not dig a hole for its eggs. Instead, females lay their eggs on the inner sides of males' hind legs. When the eggs hatch, the hatchlings swim off.