Obsididaur

While the spike-backed greenscale was doing alright for itself by feeding on lower growing vegetation, some populations began to turn their attention towards the canopy. By specializing towards the niche of browsers, these populations were able to get much bigger and split off from their ancestors.

In terms of general anatomy, the obsididaur is not too dissimilar from its ancestor before one gets to the neck, though there are a few minor differences. The limbs have become slightly thicker and more pillar-like to support its larger size, with the singular hoof on each limb still being enormous to better distribute the force of gravity combined with their weight. The “tailstril” of the obsididaur is still about as long, acting as a counterbalance for the front end but having also developed some additional defensive adaptations.

The ancestral wooden spines of the obsididaur have become more numerous, with the second row of spines facing outwards which makes them more effective at smacking potential predators like a megajaw or at competing herbivores such as hagloxes. To better withstand the stresses of being smacked into something at high speeds, the spines on the obsididaur’s “tailstril” have calcified, which makes them sturdier overall. While the spines do provide a formidable barrier to predators, obsididaurs will more often rely on the camouflage patterns to avoid threats. The photosynthetic scales that cover the creature’s body contain high amounts of anthocyanin, giving the obsididaur a dark blueish-purple coloration. The males also have re-developed a cheek spike, which came around when the genetic mechanism which suppressed development of its cheek spikes in their ancestors was deleted or rendered nonfunctional, causing the ancestral trait to re-emerge.

The largest noticeable differences in the obsididaur’s anatomy are the elongated neck and long tongue. Both of these adaptations are related to its browsing habits, both giving it a larger feeding envelope by increasing how high up it can reach foliage. The obsididaur does not feed on crystal flora, instead specializing to mainly browse on purple flora while occasionally supplementing their diet with black flora. This more specialized lifestyle meant the obsididaur could avoid competition with the hagloxes to an extent, since those saucebacks are more generalistic overall in what flora they consume. obsididaurs also differ from the solitary hagloxes by traveling in small groups, though they do not travel in great herds like their ancestors or close relatives.

While the “tailstril” spines are relatively large in both sexes, they are slightly larger in the males due to their ancestors using them for display, although it's not very distinct anymore since the species no longer uses their tails for courtship. Instead, males have nearly black heads which are purely for display purposes. When male obsididaurs fight one another for mating rights over females, they will stand next to each other and smack their heads and necks into their opponent, not too different from the fights seen in Terran giraffes. For these matches, the cheek spikes found only on males comes into use, as they can be jammed into an opponent and cause minor injuries. Eventually a winner is determined, either by one backing down, or by an individual getting crippled and being unable to keep fighting.

Unlike their ancestors, the obsididaur only gives birth to one youngster at a time, with the female guarding their calf until it can stand up and walk. Once the calf can follow their mother, she will bring them back to the herd where the male will then help protect them. Young obsididaurs have underdeveloped nubs for “tailstril” spines, which helps them to not get stuck in their mother’s throat or tear a hole as they are being born, which makes birth safer overall for both individuals but meant the young were more vulnerable to predators. To counter this, obsididaur herds are tightly-knit, with calves being kept in the middle so their parents can shield them from danger.