Mollisnite

Splitting from its ancestor, the mollisnite has taken to the various stiltbulbs of Mason and become an arboreal predator. Its long, slender body has become even more flexible, allowing it to wind its way around roots with relative ease. Its claws help it to do this by allowing it to dig into the roots of the stiltbulbs and thus give them great traction to the point where they can climb while upside-down.

Another evolutionary adaption is a coloration closer to that of its new home, allowing it to blend in its heat signature with that of its surroundings, making it practically invisible to untrained sensory appendages. Besides this, it has developed primitive tusks to gore its prey, allowing for quicker, easier kills. In order to defend itself from larger predators such as the helmethead scylla, it has evolved a series of spines along its back which make it difficult for predators to catch them. Finally, small hairs on their bottom of their tail allow them to pick up vibrations traveling through the air.

Forming packs of 2 or 3 members, they move from stiltbulb to stiltbulb, preferring the towering stiltbulbs due to their great size & available hiding spaces. They wait in ambush for prey, such as a grasping teci, to come to the stiltbulb, and while it is feeding (and thus distracted) they swarm it and attempt to climb up onto its back. From there they tear into its flesh with their tusks till their prey dies from a combination of shock and blood loss, after which they will feast. The only danger comes from larger prey, such as the previously mentioned grasping teci, rising up and then collapsing onto its back, a move that can crush an unaware mollisnite underneath.

Young are laid in clutches of dozens of eggs during the beginning of the warmer months and given no parental care. Once they hatch, they immediately search for cover and know already how to care for themselves. They will only go after smaller prey, though once they have matured enough they will form packs and begin to go after larger prey. This, of course, takes between one and two years as their growth is not uniform amongst individuals, with some growing much faster than others.