Mouse Gryphler

The mouse gryphler split from its ancestor. As its name suggests, it is very small—roughly the size of a mouse. Similar to its ancestor, it eats seeds, but it will also use its beak to crack open small crystals. It varies somewhat in color across its range to blend in with different soil colors, and in the deserts it is able to use its wings as radiators to remove excess heat. A row of soft trichomes guard its ears and streamline its head. Unlike its ancestor, the mouse gryphler prefers to come out in the mornings and evenings when it has fewer predators and can catch at least some sunlight.

The mouse gryphler’s toes are no longer solid wood and instead have muscles attaching on the inside. This allows it to deform them to bend the toes, working like a flexible exoskeleton. The ends of the toes are tipped in stiffer wood which can be used to scratch. However, it still digs using its beak. Like its ancestor, its skeleton contains stiffer wood than that of most other plents; however it is still able to deform its unjointed bones to the same degree as other plents with unjointed skeletons. This is because at its small size, and that of its ancestor, even a core of stiffened wood bends when pulled by muscles. However, this feature also allows gryphlers as a group to have skinnier bones than other plents without them bending under their own weight.

The mouse gryphler’s internal excretion sac reabsorbs some of the water from its liquid waste, making it more concentrated and almost paste-like. This allows it to more easily thrive in dry environments. Like other plents, it has a blind gut and must regurgitate all waste. It has ceased excreting liquid waste from its skin at all and has instead repurposed the excretion glands to produce oil, which protects and strengthens its trichomes. Like its ancestor, it can dig shallow burrows using its beak to store seeds and crystals to feed on out of season.

Like its ancestor, the mouse gryphler mates mouth-to-mouth by “tongue-kissing” and gestates young in a womb which hangs at the base of the neck. It nests hidden among flora and gives live birth to 4 or 5 offspring at a time, which are small but already capable of walking and even short bursts of flight and will follow their mother. It breeds several times a year, lacking a mating season.