Shingo

In the newly-formed Driftwood Islands where there was little competition, the Shingo split from its ancestor, leaving the protection of the Seashrog. It has become the local opportunist, capable of feeding from a great variety of food sources in different circumstances. It has adopted a more strongly asymmetrical shell to place its hind leg further back, granting it a far more stable stance and gait. It island-hops through chance dispersal, as its eggs and aquatic juveniles are readily swept up and carried between islands by currents.

The Shingo has a long beak comparable to that of a generalistic bird such as a crow. It can use this to kill and eat small fauna, gobble up leaves and berries, and consume waste from other fauna such as dung. It readily eats carcasses and detritus, making its species the macro-level “clean-up crew” of this floating archipelago. It has a strong immune system to resist disease from eating dung and rotting meat. Though it might be regarded as a “dirty” creature due to its choice of food, it’s actually quite clean and doesn’t generally spread disease, even to other shailnitor species.

Like its ancestor and unlike most other uktanks, the Shingo does not depend on water to breathe and instead breathes air actively with lungs in its shell. It floats in water and can swim fairly well. It mates in the water and prefers to lay its eggs hidden among aquatic flora. It may lay eggs out in the open in the driftwood islands’ salt lakes, if there isn’t anything growing there for it to hide its eggs in. Juveniles gain terrestrial adaptations quickly and make landfall soon after, though some may be swept out to sea where they will drown or starve, assuming they are not eaten. Like its ancestor, the Shingo has a layer of dead skin cells filled with chitin to resist desiccation on land.