Duramceri

Duramceri superficially resemble even fattier Duramboars, which they replace. Other than their fattier bodies, their biggest differences are internal adaptations for cold, dry conditions and reproductive developments, namely the larval development stages and the connection between male Duramceris’ dewlaps and bladders.

Duramceris’ huge, fatty, dark-colored bodies allow them to gain heat fairly quickly, and lose it fairly slowly. Their large, rounded bodies make them so good at holding onto heat that they may, at times, risk overheating during hot days after sustained running from predators. When this happens, they increase blood circulation to their shoulder-spikes and thigh-spikes, making them a redder shade and releasing them to the surrounding air. Only the shoulder spikes contain bony elements: the thigh spikes are keratinous structures similar to iguana spikes, with an inner core of spongy tissue connected to the vascular system. The blood supply to the spikes can be constricted to reduce heat loss in the cold.

Their necks are not particularly flexible: it was unnecessary for it to be too flexible, due to having six eyes and a wide span of vision.

Males have slightly longer lower teeth. Since they don’t poke out of the mouth, they aren’t quite tusks.

Duramceris migrate between latitudes as the seasons change.

Reproduction
Male Duramceris' bladder-dewlap apparatus ("bladlap apparatus") is used to incubate eggs and larvae. After Duramceri spawn in shallow pools of water, the males shall take eggs he’s fertilized into his bladder. It is somewhat akin to gastric brooding frogs incubating young in their stomachs, although a different organ is used. Until the larvae hatch, the father Duramceri cannot urinate, although the large storage capacity of the bladder delays really needing to for a few days. The eggs hatch faster than Duramboar eggs, and as tiny, immature larvae, the young move from the bladder into the dewlap, and the ducts connecting the two organs constrict after their passage. At this point, male Duramboars can urinate.

Retaining the larvae within the bladlap apparatus means less water is used through the course of their development: a useful trait in the desert. The males have remarkably large bladders while incubating young. They are not nourished within the bladlap apparatus; they depend on stores of yolk provisioned from within the egg. Within his body, the larvae are kept warmer than they would in shallow ponds, which accelerates their development. The larvae moving between the organs is sometimes uncomfortable, as clear from the father’s grimacing and slight shuffling. Since the travel is quick and the pain not so severe it puts him at risk of predators, however, there has been no evolutionary pressure for their bodies to change.

Females’ urinary openings are moved up onto their underbellies rather than under their tails, as a side effect of bladlap apparatus development. Their bladders are not connected anywhere unusual, however.

Growth of the Young
Duramceris give birth within days of each other in late spring. Duramceris birth 3-5 young at a time: an adaptation to having several predators. The young are born tiny (2-3 cm) with no body spikes (a constraint from the small openings they emerge from), and look mostly like tiny, less-fatty, lengthier adults with a little tadpole-like tail membrane that is soon reabsorbed.

Duramceri young grow to 40 cm shockingly quickly, and maintain a somewhat slower but still fast pace of growth to 60 cm. Before reaching 60 cm, the young are extra-skittish and hard to spot, rarely straying far from the legs of adults. The young are voracious but picky, craving more nutritious food than the adults do. The voraciousness from their high metabolism inclines them to eat almost constantly. Duramceris are somewhat cooperative, and the adults do not mind if the young eat some of the tubers they dig up. The quick growth of newborns reduces how long they are vulnerable to snapperkies, a major predator of the young. Below about 20 cm, they are too small to access their preferred foods quickly with some measure of safety, so their voraciousness leads them to consume undigested remnants of food from the dung of adult Duramceris. The practice is somewhat similar to that of young elephants and young hippopotamuses eating the dung of adults of their species. Young Duramceris' high growth rates compel them to eat high amounts of calcium. If their diets or dirt from tubers and roots cannot sustain them, they will gnaw on bones and bark and even swallow clumps of dirt.

Born far too small to make use of giganotothermy or the insulation of fat, the young (birth to about 60 cm) are somewhat endothermic, like tegus, and bask on any warm rocks near the herd to heat themselves up more. They can maintain their body temperatures up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than their surroundings. As they grow, they lose their relative endothermy.

Other Details
The development of bladlap incubation has made it less useful to migrate to the tundra, as a formerly low-predator environment that also has low volumes of food it can eat. Indeed, by living outside the tundra, it is able to avoid Snowstalker Tuskents entirely. However, due to being migratory but not having especially fine-tuned navigational senses to avoid overshooting, some end up in Fermi Tundra occasionally anyway, before eventually moving on in search of more food.

Duramceri live most densely at oases and “savannas”. They avoid the temperate beaches, not from a lack of food or adaptations but because the beaches have so many predators.

They live in small herds, typically 6-8 adults, which periodically splits off as it gets too large. Duramceris have tough, thick skin, and blood vessels which constrict in cold temperatures. The spikes pale in the cold. Like its ancestor, the flap of skin over its nostrils can be used to protect its nostrils from dust storms or colony stalk defense phytids, though it prefers to not eat colony stalks due to being unable to protect its eyes, too.

Toes
Unlike its ancestor, it only has two toes per foot: one in the front, and one in the back. Its migratory lifestyle and dependence on speed (and to a lesser extent, its bulk) to deal with predators has led to the loss of its toes, in a similar way to the evolution of horses. Its hooves are constantly growing and must be worn down through travel on rough terrain.

(Image depicts a female.)