Beach Twintail
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Beach twintail have split from their ancestor and moved to the beaches of Kosemen. As with all descendants of the scrambled shrew, the chasing twintail lineage had been plagued with genetic mutations. While only making superficial changes to their external appearance, the more overt changes are internal or on a cellular level. The most striking change is the development of a secondary heart. A result in a one off change mutation that overtime was fixed into the whole population, as the female progenitor that initiated this had a slight increase in lifespan and nutrient allocation, allowing for not only a greater number of offspring but less malnourished ones. The redundancy offered by having two hearts enhances pulmonary circulation efficiency, optimizing oxygen uptake to meet the beach twintail's energy requirements. Furthermore, the twintail's have over the generations further refined this, evolving proportionally large coronary arteries, a necessity for bypassing high resistance to blood flow to accommodate the increased demand for oxygenated blood by both hearts and the high metabolic demands. Their ventricular walls are in addition composed of compact myocardium, a result in the increase in myocardium cell count, which not only increases contraction efficiency but reduces the risk of malformations in the embryotic development stage.
Outside of the circulatory system, their central nervous system has adapted to their smaller brain size by increasing their cellular glucose transporters, allowing for much more efficient energy intake. This has also allowed for more productive signaling between the brain and the body, allowing for faster reflexes of approximately 40-60 milliseconds, aiding further in catching fast moving prey and avoiding predators. Phenotypically, their bodies have become slightly thinner and their fur has adapted to become water-repellent, aiding in its ability to hunt in shallow waters and damp environments. Their whisker pads are now furless, allowing for more sensitivity with detection while burrowing in the sand or in the dim undermangal.
The beach twintail's diet consists primarily of small aquatic and semi-aquatic prey found in the littoral environment, though they're not unknown to scavenge from larger predators such as the falcophreys or shrogsthat make their home on the beaches. This shift in diet from has led to minor adaptations in dentition, with slightly sharper and more durable teeth to handle the hard exoskeletons or to grip onto particularly fast prey. The smaller brain size inherited from their ancestor has allowed them to grow more robust jaw and skull muscles, giving them a comparatively much more powerful bite. The fur coloration has lightened somewhat to provide better camouflage against the sandy and rocky backgrounds of its habitat. Like its ancestor, the beach twintail lives in burrows and breeds 10 times a year, producing up to 1000 joeys a year. Its offspring are born helpless and live off of milk in their mother's pouch for the first two weeks of their lives.