Herbilly

The herbilly split from its ancestor, the scaleskunik. When some scaleskuniks ventured into the Bone Temperate Riparian, they managed to find a place with absolutely no predators and minimal competition with larger plents; thus, they were able to find a place they could thrive in. However, they still needed to adapt to their environment, which had some fast-flowing water and muddier ground that the scaleskunik was not capable of dealing with.

In order to adapt to the water, the herbilly’s flesh has become oily, allowing for better buoyancy than its ancestor. Plus, the herbilly has evolved paddle-like feet that give it a boost in swimming in water. Both of these adaptations reduce the likelihood of drowning. Not only do the paddle-like feet allow for swimming, but they can also be used to dig into the mud and make a small den to sleep in, along with keeping it from sinking in the mud.

The herbilly’s beak has also evolved into a flatter shape, much like Earth’s magpie-goose, which it uses to further shovel into the mud, for straining water for miniswarmers, and for holding in more food per sitting. Lastly, the herbilly has also evolved by living in symbiosis with the leafshells and river hornfaces. The herbilly does so by following them and picking off any sapshrooms growing on the larger plents along with eating their feces, which helps keep them clean, while the larger plents create pathways that allow for the growth of supershrooms and offer protection for herbillies.

The herbilly is still cold-blooded and needs to warm itself up before going anywhere, but this also means it does not need to eat as often. The herbilly also still lays several wooden eggs in large clusters because even though there are no predators, there are still problems of larger plents accidentally crushing herbillies. So, the herbilly, unlike its ancestor, will protect its eggs until they hatch; it does this by nipping at larger plents that get too close to nesting areas. When baby herbillies hatch, they continue to receive protection from the parents for about 1–2 weeks, then the babies are immediately abandoned and are capable of fending for themselves. The herbilly can live up to 22 years.