Stiltsferatu
| Stiltsferatu | ||
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| (Alethotripus grallator) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | OviraptorFan Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/167 | |
| Habitat | Wallace Tropical Scrub, West Wallace Tropical Woodland, Dixon Subtropical Woodland, Dixon Tropical Woodland, Central Wallace Tropical Woodland, Central Wallace Tropical Scrub, Darwin Tropical Scrub | |
| Size | 2 meters tall | |
| Primary Mobility | Unknown | |
| Support | Endoskeleton (Bone) | |
| Diet | Herbivore (Mainland Fuzzpalm sapling leaves and berries, Carnossamer leaves and fruit, smaller Ferry leaves and berries, Rock Ferry leaves and berries, Fruiting Grovecrystal leaves and fruit, Robust Arid Ferine leaves and berries, Cragmyr leaves and berries, Fuzzpile leaves and berries, Scrubland Tubeplage leaves and fruit, Scrubland Quhft sapling leaves and fruit, Tropical Gecoba Tree sapling leaves and fallen fruit, Madamedusa Vine leaves and seed bubbles, Snowflake Obsidioak saplings, Gargantuan Obsiditree saplings, Obsidiroot, Woodland Grovecrystal leaves, Tropical Crystamboo, Crystamboo, Caprystal saplings, Crystamble leaves, Signpost Crystamboo leaves, Rifamboo leaves, Kellace (accidental)) | |
| Respiration | Active (Lungs) | |
| Thermoregulation | Endotherm | |
| Reproduction | Sexual, Lays Hard-Shelled Eggs in burrows, Two Sexes | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Kingdom Phylum Superclass Clade Class Subclass Order Suborder Superfamily Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Carpozoa Spondylozoa Anisoscelida Pentapodes Caudapodia Eucaudapodia Lophocula Eulophocula Vespericentauroidea Tricristahippidae Alethotripus Alethotripus grallator | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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As dense tropical forests gave way to more open woodlands, scrub, and plains upon the continent of Wallace, any creature that moved into these habitats could become quite successful. For some populations of gnawsferatu, this opportunity would tempt them to leave behind the dense rainforests they originated in and become more adapted for open environments, undergoing a small adaptive radiation. While one branch of them would give rise to the highly cursorial nudesferatus, another branch would begin browsing on foliage higher up and developed adaptations to better reach them, eventually splitting off and becoming the stiltsferatu.
In many ways, the stiltsferatu could be described as what happens when a gnawsferatu adapts to fill the ecological role of the related ballichehara. Since they no longer dwell within dense forests, the stiltsferatu has become double the size of their ancestor, which allowed them to have a larger stride and a far greater reach. To further extend their reach, the stiltsferatu's fingers and claws have become much longer, helping them hook onto branches and pull them into reach of their mouth. The head of the stiltsferatu has hardly changed from their tropical ancestor, as it's pretty well suited for their particular diet. The front teeth still continuously grow in a similar fashion to rodents, which helps counter the constant wear these teeth experience. The front teeth snip off bits of vegetation brought into reach by their arms, which will then be ground up by the large molars in the back of the mouth. Though the species primarily feeds upon the leaves of phoenophytes and crystal flora, they will also readily feed upon fruit and berries when they come across them, whether they are still on the flora or have fallen onto the ground. Stiltsferatus will also feed on the various parts of melanophytes, though this is more to eliminate flora that limit the growth of the foliage they prefer to eat.
Many aspects of the species have not seen any changes at all, such as the way they hear things around them. Like other nubtaurs, the crests work by passing sound through their skin which then resonates with the thin bone core, afterwards being detected by jaw bones adjacent to it. While the crests do help with hearing, with the nasal crest also helping with their scent of smell, their primary function is for display with the crests having even become larger. The larger crests serve an additional purpose, since like the related nudesferatu this species of dweller can flush blood to the crests so they can shed heat, an important adaptation in a generally hot climate. A small dewlap on the stiltsferatu's throat has also developed to shed heat.
Stiltsferatus will still make a wide range of high frequency sounds to communicate with others of their kind. The species travels in small herds typically consisting of females and their young being protected by one mature male, much like their ancestors. The males who are not protecting a herd still hang out with other males in small bachelor herds, who are more vulnerable to predators due to having less members watching out for danger and the males don't exactly have strong bonds with other members of the group. If a group is attacked by predators, stiltsferatus will tend to flee, with their fairly long legs allowing them to gallop at a good pace though they aren't as fast as the nudesferatu. If they cannot flee from a threat, however, a stiltsferatu is more than capable of defending itself. While they can deal a pretty nasty bite, it's actually the claws on their limbs that are their main offensive weapons, with the dwellers often slapping a predator in the face with their strong forelimbs. They can also still deal a pretty nasty kick, leaning forward to lash out with their caudal leg and using the two outer toes to deal lethal wounds as the claws have actually become larger and more hooked to deal better damage.
Despite the lethality of such weapons, stiltsferatus do not use such weapons on each other, even when males challenge one another for mating rights of a herd. Instead, the males will first try to settle such confrontations by using their crests for display, trying to intimidate their rival into backing down. If that doesn't work, they will proceed to unleash a series of "attack hugs", charging towards one another with their arms outstretched before then trying to toss their opponent to the ground through wrestling. While males often get scratched up or bruised from these "attack hugs", serious wounds are extremely rare.
While they are too big to utilize a communal burrow like their ancestors, stiltsferatus will still rear their young as a group, having made due by now making shallow pits all close to each other. Each pit serves the function of a nest, with the female laying eggs within it before covering them with vegetation. The male will patrol the nest site for potential threats to the eggs when the females are out foraging, but the females will guard their own nests when they return. When the young have hatched after a two week incubation period, females will begin to bring them food to keep them fed. After about a month and a half of this, the young are old and large enough to keep pace with the herd, and thus leave their nest to join their mother. Due to being much larger, it takes a total of two years for a young stiltsferatu to reach sexual maturity, compared to the one year seen in their direct ancestor. Once this happens, both females and males will leave the herd they were raised in, with females searching for either a different herd to join or for a male to start a herd of their own. Males, meanwhile, typically join a bachelor herd since it's safer than being alone, though occasionally they will instead try to directly challenge an alpha male of a typical herd right away for mating rights. On average, the species can live to be around 25–40 years old, with the females usually breeding about 7-10 times over their entire lifespan(males can potentially breed every year after their first birthday for the rest of their lives).
Due to their generalistic diet of flora, the stiltsferatu is an important seed disperser since a lot of seeds and spores can make it past their digestive systems intact. This has allowed them to spread several different species of flora and one species of flora to new biomes.
- Fruiting Grovecrystal is spread into West Wallace Tropical Woodland, Dixon Subtropical Woodland, Dixon Tropical Woodland, Central Wallace Tropical Woodland, Central Wallace Tropical Scrub, and Darwin Tropical Scrub
- Cragmyr is spread into Dixon Tropical Woodland, Central Wallace Tropical Woodland, Central Wallace Tropical Scrub, and Darwin Tropical Scrub
- Fuzzpile is spread into Central Wallace Tropical Scrub and Dixon Tropical Woodland
- Scrubland Tubeplage is spread into Wallace Tropical Scrub, Central Wallace Tropical Scrub, West Wallace Tropical Woodland, Dixon Tropical Woodland, and Dixon Subtropical Woodland
- Scrubland Quhft is spread into Central Wallace Tropical Scrub, Wallace Tropical Scrub, West Wallace Tropical Woodland, Dixon Tropical Woodland, and Dixon Subtropical Woodland