Clattered Oothecae
| Clattered Oothecae | ||
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| (Ligneovus sepulcrunativitatis) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | Colddigger Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/167 | |
| Habitat | Drake Barrens, Drake Badlands, Drake Tundra, Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Steppe, Drake Prairie | |
| Size | 60 cm Tall | |
| Primary Mobility | Unknown | |
| Support | Endoskeleton (Jointed Wood) | |
| Diet | Photosynthesis, Omnivore(Botryrophis, Snowpuff sprouts, Windbulb sprouts, Dreidalbulb sprouts, Purple Orbibom sprouts, Tundra Orbibom sprouts, Arid Ferine seedlings, Brickbark Ferine seedlings, Sproutstalk sprouts, Suncatcher Plyent young, Umbrella Plyent young, Wub, Lahnworm, Greater Lahn young, Edward Angle Worm, Pewpa, Flugworm, Mini-Flower Ketter, Creab Walker, Inzcrek young, Marbleflora, Minikruggs, Teacup Saucebacks, Floraverms), Scavenger | |
| Respiration | Active (Lungs) | |
| Thermoregulation | Heterotherm (Basking, Muscle-Generated Heat, dead trichome insulation) | |
| Reproduction | Sexual (Two Sexes, Wooden Eggs, Pouch) | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Superkingdom Kingdom Subkingdom Phylum Class Subclass Superorder Order Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Viridisagania Mancerxa Phytozoa (info) Chloropodia (info) Pterophylla (info) Rostrophylla Passerimancerximorpha Thylacorhynca Ligneovuidae Ligneovus Ligneovus sepulcrunativitatis | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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The Clattered Oothecae replaced their ancestor the Needlewing on Drake in its given habitats, they can be found in Drake Barrens, Drake Badlands, Drake Tundra, Drake Polar Scrub, Drake Steppe, and Drake Prairie. Their size has increased compared to their ancestor, reaching a height of 60 centimeters rather than 40. Their main source of energy is photosynthesis, taking advantage of the very long summer days of their polar and subpolar homes. They will indulge on flora, carrion, and small fauna as well if the opportunity presents itself.
A newborn clattered oothecae begins life in early to mid spring as a 5 centimeter tall larva cracking out of its cask and clambering away from the flock barrow created by its parents. This larval form has several characteristics making it distinct from the adults. Its developing wings remain held by a protective sac, preventing damage during its escape from the cask as well as lowering the young ones surface area to slow heat loss.
Nearly its entire body is covered in black insulating filaments, these are frayed along their edges to create glochid structures. These glochids act as a deterrent to any would-be predators, the tiny sharp strands easily lodge into any soft tissues or nostrils and leave the spots severely irritated for days. The face and top of the head are exposed so no insulation blocks hearing or sight. It also allows exposed skin for waste excretion. The wing sac may or may not be exposed as well. Finally, the lowest segment of the leg is capable of support and is a functional player in its bipedal locomotion.
Once having squeezed its way out into the sunlight, and getting to its feet, the larval clattered oothecae will open its beady eyes to scan the surroundings. It is drawn to the black fluff appearance of its siblings who will come together to form a flock. This tight flock acts as a larger body capable of keeping its members warmer than they could manage by themselves. The flock of clattered oothecae move as a unit with no permanent leader, as they travel they will consume sprouts of flora or tiny fauna in their wake and when they meet another flock the two will merge, this repeats whenever flocks come across one another regardless of size.
The individual grows quickly, its body becoming heavier and its insulation more thoroughly covering the body over time. After a week of being in the flock the sac holding the developing wings has played its role out and is shed to reveal many photosynthetic tendrils. As the days get longer the flock will slow down and settle near a water source, usually in a depression in the ground. No longer on the move the stance taken by a maturing clattered oothecae is a resting one, squatted down it slowly waddles about on its knees rather than standing upright. Having a sedentary lifestyle in adulthood selected for the lower legs to, rather than matching the growth rate of the body, develop toward defensive uses instead of continued support. The flesh of the lower legs lignify and splinter, creating a pair of sharp and wretched weapons that can pierce a threat and fill the wound with wooden shrapnel. The front limbs hidden beneath insulation, previously underdeveloped in the larval state, follow a similar growth pattern though with large thorns at their bases as well. Their beaks remain tougher, capable of jabbing and prodding would-be food investigators.
Though no longer as active as in their larval state the flock of adults is still capable of moving as a unit as the environment demands. In the larval state all members of the flock moved at once, resulting in a fast moving mass traveling across the landscape. As adults, preferring to stay still as much as they can, movement of the flock is approached differently. As the flock moves, those in the front of the group stay in their new location as long as they can, while those toward the back beeline through the center where it's warmest toward the general direction the flock is moving to become the new front. In this way exploration of their environment is within the borders of their protective flock as much as possible.
Males and Females are basically the same in appearance, with females being somewhat larger on average. Mating is unceremonious and typically occurs between individuals who happen to be nearest one another in the flock. Females may mate four or five times in early summer, each with a different partner due to flock dynamics. Shortly after mating she'll be gestating 20-30 offspring. Placental attachment is rather shallow, with late embryonic diapause occurring after organ differentiation at 0.2 centimeters in size by maternal hormones. At this point rather than flowing material into the embryo, which both puts strain on the mother as well as being hindered by the growth rate of the offspring, extracellular layering of nutrient dense fluid in the form of cysts, alternatively called yolks, appears in two or more points of the placental interface and become contained by a final layering of fibrous protein and saccharides by surrounding uterine tissue.
Once the yolks are formed placental growth is briefly resumed, growing over top of the yolks. In response the endometrium, or maternal tissue, that is in contact with the placenta, grows to form a sac or cyst filled with lymph and concentrated trehalose over top that engulfs the placenta and embryo. A second sac or cyst forms beneath this structure with a wall of several separate membrane layers and holds the yolks. The several pieces of cargo within what is essentially now an egg are held in place by a surrounding placental diaphragm that divides the ovicular orb. The porous walls of the egg lignify, with the appearance of a walnut of Earth. Alongside the discharge of chunks of lochia they are embedded in, the clutch of eggs is born together into the holding pouch with the embryo cargo, and even endometrium tissue, inside remaining in diapause. The surrounding soft tissue is cleaned away by the mother off the eggs with care, individually lifting them into the mouth for cleaning and placing them back into the holding pouch. By this time it is late summer and night has begun to show its face again.
As the nights become longer the main food supply, sunlight, for the clattered oothecae dwindles. Eventually the light is no more and in the darkness they both freeze and starve. This final life stage, brought on by the night, triggers a cellular response causing lignification throughout their bodies, both females and males. The entire clattered oothecae is converted to wood via stress response, and the entire flock is reduced to a pile of the lifeless stuff with exception of the dormant eggs they carry.
The eggs remain dormant throughout the winter darkness, trehalose sopping throughout the inner tissues prevents freezing damages from the cold. The multiple protective woody layers of the egg and dead mother, in combination with the trehalose, protect the eggs from the desiccating dry air of the winter night as well. The katabatic winter winds of inner Drake formed at Mae Peak and Drake Glacier often cause the piles of bodies to become strewn about the wastelands, tucking them away into catchments and crevices.
Eventually spring rolls around, and sunlight begins to touch the ground again in small amounts. As the light levels increase the warmth that settles across the wooden casing holding the eggs triggers dormancy to break. Those unlucky enough to somehow manage becoming trapped in eternal shadow remain dormant. As metabolic activity resumes in the egg the embryo requires oxygen to grow. The two lymph sacs of the egg were constructed unequally, the one containing the embryo having a single layer wall to protect it, while the one beneath the embryo and placental diaphragm has a wall comprised of multiple layers. The inner most layer is mainly comprised of fibrous proteins and saccharides, cells of the mother also exist in this layer primarily around the yolk and survive by metabolizing the trehalose inside the lymph sac when not dormant. Two more outer layers comprised of mostly saccharide fibers allow great protection from bumping into one another while allowing for controlled airflow into the egg. Over winter these layers slowly pull apart due to the dry air, providing an internal exposure to oxygen for the egg.
As dormancy breaks the mother cells in the lower lymph sac begin proliferating around the yolk and digesting it layer by layer into substances free to be absorbed by the placental blood supply above them. The heart in the embryo has already formed, and begins beating. The blood vessels quickly invade into the lower chamber of the egg, absorbing yolk nutrients and available oxygen to feed the growing organism. Once the yolk is depleted, and the lower chamber is nothing more than a thin layer of blood vessels stretched around the enlarged upper cavity, then development is nearly complete, though the summer will be nearly over. The trehalose in the upper chamber containing the fetus will have been completely absorbed into the tissues but not metabolized. The fetus will reenter a state of inactivity, a deep torpor, and continue to be in this state until early spring. The trehalose in its tissues will prevent cellular destruction during the cold winter.
In spring the tiny plent will hatch from its egg, burning its trehalose as its first food supply, and push its way out the long dead mouth of its mother. This two year wait period results in population explosions and crashes that makes regular predation difficult due to resource pulses.