Gryphler

The Gryphler replaced its ancestor. As a warm-blooded organism, at its relatively small size and with its ability to fly, ultimately being fat and having dark colors alone was not enough to insulate it against cold nights and winter frost. Much like with the evolution of feathers in the ancestors of dinosaurs, strong evolutionary pressures have led it to make an integumentary innovation: it has developed an indumentum of trichomes. These initially grow as a single greatly elongated cell on the surface of the skin, but the cell eventually dies, leaving behind a strand of dead cellulose which functions like hair. The Gryphler’s entire body is covered in this fuzz, keeping it warm. The only exceptions are its feet, beak, and stabilizers, which are naked but woody, and its ears, which need to be naked to function. Some light passes through its indumentum, allowing it to still perform only slightly weakened photosynthesis.

The Gryphler’s hooves have been altered, gaining a slight branching toe-like structure. Wood is bendy and tends to return to its original shape, so these are a solid unarticulated piece which serve to help propel it as it walks. The insides of many of its other wood structures, including its beak and skeleton, have a modified form of lignin within them that makes them stiffer and stronger than normal wood. This has resulted in its beak being as hard as chitin, which helps it to crack open seeds. The stabilizers lack this, as they work better when they’re flexible. Its trichomes also lack it and are rather fragile as a result, but they regrow too quickly for this to have a negative impact.

Like most plents, the Gryphler mates mouth-to-mouth. However, its ancestors had never innovated this further despite evolving large beaks that made successful mating more difficult. The Gryphler’s beak being solid makes mating even more of a challenge than ever before. Therefore, its tongue has been modified to double as a reproductive organ. The tongue has an opening under it in females to accept the male’s, which has a smaller opening at the end. These openings are usually held closed so that food and harmful microbes don’t make their way inside. So in essence, it mates by “kissing” like other plents, except its kisses are tongue kisses. Like other plents, its womb is in its neck area, though unlike most plents where it's a gular sack-like structure, its womb hangs just in front of or slightly between the forelegs as to interfere less with feeding; pregnant females, therefore, may resemble birds with full crops.

Like other plents, the Gryphler breathes out a “butt nostril” on its rear, though it is not particularly visible between its short tail and fluffy coat. It is located about where the anus would be on, say, a carpozoan. It has a blind gut, and like other plents a good portion of its waste is excreted through its skin, though to account for its trichomes it has developed an internal excretion sac so that much of that waste can be regurgitated with the larger indigestible parts of its food. It can dig shallow burrows with its beak, and it will store seeds underground to consume out of season. It can scent using chemoreceptors on the inside of its mouth and vocalize with a “toot” from its butt nostril.

Through seeds, nuts, and fruit, the Gryphler has spread the following:
 * Quone to all its Rocky and Temperate Riparian biomes
 * Quilbil to all its Temperate Riparian, Chaparral, and Temperate Woodland biomes
 * Segmented Carnofern to all its Temperate Riparian biomes
 * Luroxal to all its Temperate Riparian biomes
 * Twin-Tail Orbibom to Vivus Boreal
 * Boreal Tubeplage to Vivus Rocky and Vivus Boreal
 * Feroak to Vivus Boreal and Vivus Rocky
 * Gecoba Tree to Dixon-Darwin Boreal, Dixon-Darwin Rocky, Darwin Chaparral, and Darwin Temperate Woodland
 * Bloodsap Melontree to Dixon-Darwin Boreal, Dixon-Darwin Rocky, and Darwin Temperate Woodland
 * Whirlybulb to all of its Temperate Riparian biomes and, indirectly, their corresponding Salt Marshes
 * Yuccagave to Vivus Rocky and Darwin Chaparral
 * Snow Windbulb to Vivus Rocky
 * Robust Arid Ferine to Vivus Rocky
 * Hengende to Dixon-Darwin Boreal, Dixon-Darwin Rocky, Darwin Chaparral, and Darwin Temperate Woodland
 * Marblemelon to Dixon-Darwin Rocky