Ukrith

The ukrith split from their ancestors and have adapted to life in the more temperate plains. Their largest adaptation is to their legs. Each of their legs has the ancestral vertical and horizontal ring-shaped muscles, which support its weight like stacking tires. These muscles have bands of tissue reinforced with calcium carbonate that help keep them upright, in a convergent adaptation with the uksapo. However they have also begun to develop a ball-and-socket like appendage to their legs. This newer addition to their leg anatomy is mostly made out of hardened, modified leg muscle, reinforced with calcium carbonate, and connecting to an undergirdle that is acting like a quasi-pelvis. While this in not as advanced as the analogs in Carpozoa or other Mancerxa, it is functional enough to give them a considerable advantage over the less specialized uktanks. Their back limb is further adapted to bipedalism, acting as a stabilizing rudder and as a counterbalance.

Due to the porous nature of their ancestors' skin, they have begun to develop adaptions to fend off frostbite during the colder months of the year. To combat this, they will regularly journey towards more temperate climates during the depths of winter in the northern latitudes, however this is not always enough. To combat this, the adults have evolved a thicker epidermis, allowing for greater water retention and less susceptibility to freezing. Their gas exchange holes on their shells have also migrated towards the crevices of the shell. Their upward direction make water retention in the shell easier.

While they spend much of their adult lives out of water, they still must return to shallow water to lay their eggs. They will lay their eggs directly into the water, where the young stay until they are large enough to survive on land. They prefer to lay their eggs in brackish to freshwater waterways, and will regularly journey to the riverbanks to lay their eggs. In a pinch, a pond or oasis will also work, though these don't always work out, as they have a habit of freezing over or drying out before the young are ready to leave the confines of their hatchery. Eggs that have frozen over have developed internal mechanisms that allow for limited protection from the cold. The developing embryos will slow their development until more favorable conditions allow for further progression. To ensure some survive, females will lay hundreds of thousands of eggs in multiple spots over a breeding season, increasing the likelihood that at least some will survive to adulthood. Of those hundreds of thousands, on average about 1 percent will survive to hatch, and of those, about 1 percent will survive to reproduce.