Aossi

As the srugeing continued the process of becoming gradually more adapted to aerial life, new niches opened themselves up to be filled, allowing for a diversification in species. One such species is the aossi, an organism specializing in high sugar diets. Compared to their ancestors, the aossi are much better suited for a terrestrial lifestyle. While they still retain a larval state that is reminiscent of the ancestral gilltail, they now spend longer out of the water as adults, growing a comparatively leathery epidermis layer that allows for moisture retention. They are also able to support themselves with a more rigid internal chitin endoskeletal structure called a gladius, in a manner similar in setup to that of terran cephalopods. This structure however in entirely internal and rather thin, resting directly between the dermal and epidermal layers of their skin, save for the skin on their tails. This structure is rather primitive and does not form until immediately prior to their emergence from water.. They are in their adult stage now for the warmer seasons, totaling up to 5 months. They will remain as larvae for up to 4 years, before they begin the process of maturing into their adult stage. This allows the aossi to keep their predators to a minimum, as both they and their ancestors are often opportunistically feed upon by mountsnappers, sormsnappers, and corvisnappers. The aossi gets their main source of nutrients from the various small fauna that they hunt. Their hummingbird-like flight technique allows them to easily maneuver as they pick up the small insectoid fauna of the greater Maineiac woodlands areas. This flight technique comes at a cost, as it is extremely energy intensive, requiring the aossi to take frequent rests and to eat the equivalent of up to their entire body weight in calories every day. Adding to their flight burdens is their prehensile tails. These tails are needed to allow the aossi to grip to orbioflora branches to roost, but these also act as a drag on their flight. In order to help supplement these extreme energy costs, they feed on the sugary food sources available in their environment, mainly the sappy pinknose. Lacking a tongue, they instead have developed a fold within their stomach and throat, which they regurgitate up when they are within a sappy pinknose. This partial gastric eversion in may was both looks and functions like a tongue, granting the aossi the ability to lap up the sugary mucus and spore berries. the sappy pinknose has adapted to take advantage of this behavior, as the aossi are not the most efficient eaters, they will carry off spore berries on their bodies and in their droppings, allowing for the further spread of their food. Thanks to this feeding method, the aossi has actually allowed the proliferation of the sappy picknose to the environments that the aossi lives in, finding the abundant drooping orbion relatives fantastic hosts. The can now be found all over the woodlands of Maineiac. Even with the energy source of the sappy pinknose, they have shrunken dramatically in size compared to their ancestor, as their diet can not fully support organisms much larger than them. The mating practices of the aossi have become more elaborate, due to ever increasing mate selection pressure. The males have developed increased coloration patterns to stand out for females. Aossi eyesight is not well developed, and so they must rely on this coloration distinctions to stand out among the foliage. When a male is accepted, the mating pairs will search for calmer bodies of water, usually within the riparian regions of the Maineiac river system, where the female will lay her brood, typically between 100-300 eggs, which the male will fertilize and then abandon. Fertilization will usually occur in anywhere between 40-95% of the laid eggs, with factors such as calmness of the standing water and fitness of the male contributing. On rare occasion, another male may come along and attempt to fertilize the eggs as well, attempting to capitalize on the possibility of there being remaining viable unfertilized eggs. If they do so while the previous male is still present, it will usually result in a "fight", which amounts to the males circling one another until one expends too much energy and gives up. These fights have been know to lead to the death of one or both of the males, as they will burn through enough of their reserves to collapse from exhaustion. This adds an extra evolutionary pressure on energy regulation, as the male with the better abilities to conserve energy will be the one most likely to survive, and thus pass on their genes.