Teci

The teci replaced its ancestor, the hexcrawler. With the development of predators from its ancestor, and new food sources appearing, the remaining hexcrawlers adapted. Much like its ancestor, it shares many common traits with its relatives. It no longer crawls along across the ground, instead developing a loping gait in Mason's low gravity, with its two front legs propelling it forward, landing on its back pair of legs and rolling back towards the front, with the back legs contributing some momentum, though not as much as the front pair. Its four breathing tubes have merged into two tubes with two openings each. The most interesting change, though, comes in the changes in the mouth of the organism. Three of its primary oral appendages have further adapted its ancestors heat sensing ability, like many of its relatives. These help it "see" areas of higher heat with great sensitivity, enough to detect patches of food or potential predators, when they are raised, and rest on the back of the organism. They are covered in a thick, gelatinous layer that is in turn enclosed by a thin membrane. The amount of disturbance of the membrane by infrared radiation is amplified through the gel, and picked up by the modified touch-sensors. The rest of its primary oral appendages are now normally tightly curled inside of the mouth. It unwinds these to grasp at the stalks of airbulbs, and transfer food into the mouth. Like its ancestor, to reproduce it will dig a hole in the ground, tranfer a thick gelatinous material into the hole, and cover it with a thin layer of dirt. The embryo inside of the material will slowly eat its way out, and grow into a full teci.