Raking Uktank

The raking uktank split from its ancestor, the walking uktank. It has developed island dwarfism, growing to become a small island critter of between 40 – 70 cm tall. Other than that physically it has changed little, with a slightly wider shell and different coloration more fitting to its purple-pink flora environment. This is needed for camouflage against its main enemy and predator, the island skysnapper. Its claw has changed as well, becoming shaped like a rake due to its unique diet. It now feeds on the decaying, high calorie roots of the island flora and especially the rootbud shrub leave behind by raking them out of the ground and sucking them using its ring mouth. Its legs also evolved another joint allowing it to kneel down when raking.

Like its ancestor it must live an amphibious lifestyle and must go back into the water. In order to be able to stay out of the water it has a massive hollow shell in which it will fill with compressed oxygen, which it gathers for most of the day while in the water. It also has many breathing holes in its shell in order to fill it with oxygen, which are closed with membranes during its time outside the water. It still reproduces in the water and lays eggs in the water. They flock in masses once every full moon near the beach at shallow waters in Ovi Coast for a mass reproduction ritual.

Most of their time on land is spent on raking for food. In addition to sucking food they use their tube mouth to create sound: long howls, which resemble those of their ancestor only slightly higher and squeakier. They have also inherited a primitive ear using the front shell plate. This plate picks up the sound and the vibration is translated to the brain as noise; thus, like their ancestor they can communicate with each other while on land and warn each other of predators. They also use their hooked shell to scare off and fight island skysnappers.