Cyclops

Living in north-central Serinarcta's remaining soglands, a wide if now somewhat broken expanse of flooded plains, is one of the strangest molodonts around. It isn't exceptionally large, colorful, powerful, or smart. But it is very distinctive, and for two main reasons: foremost is its markings, and second is its teeth.

The cyclops, a robust species of tribbymara, is named for a big eye-spot pattern that it has evolved in the middle of its forehead. The purpose for the marking is not entirely clear, and may have several uses. It may intimidate would-be predators when this heavy-set, pig-like animal suddenly raises its head from the grass and appears to stare into their eyes with a single, unnaturally huge eyeball. It might also serve as a decoy, a spot that enemies may strike instead of its far smaller and sideways-facing actual eyes, rendering the attack less dangerous.

The second trait of the cyclops is even more unique, for there is no other molodont living or extinct which has had it to such a degree. On either side of its recumbent lower tooth, two tusk-like projections arc up and out from its mouth. Both sexes of cyclops have them in similar size, and they use them to uproot vegetation, to fight predators, and also to shove against one another, especially the males. These are not extra-dental osteoderm teeth growing from the skin as in thorngrazers, but extensions of the lower tooth itself. How has this happened?  It all comes down to a lucky deformity in a recent ancestor that has, through chance, become beneficial to the animal.

All molodonts can sometimes be subject to developmental errors in their teeth, which as a reminder are not truly single huge teeth, but plates formed by the fusion of hundreds of smaller teeth, most similar to the beak of a parrot fish. In typical growth and development, the teeth plates - one each in the upper and lower jaw - grow as a single structure, and the two wear against eachother when feeding so as to remain aligned neatly. But every so often, the organization falls apart. Part of the tooth plate begins to grow unevenly, often outward from the rest. A long spiked fang of overgrowth is the usual result, and of course can only grow on the outer surfaces of the teeth which are not worn down through chewing. Usually such a deformity develops gradually, worsening with time, and if it does not eventually break off can negatively affect the ability of the animal to chew its food, leading to starvation. But what has happened in the cyclops is that a mutation has appeared that causes consistent, predictable overgrowth on the sides of the lower tooth, where they not only don't affect chewing, but become useful to dig and to strike enemies. The tusks of the cyclops are usually still slightly uneven, and sometimes show additional points, especially along their front edge, which is often sharply jagged, but they are consistent and present in all individuals. As long as they don't occur in the front of the mouth, these pseudo-tusks provide advantages to their owners. They have let the cyclops become larger, and in turn less swift, for it can now more effectively defend itself from enemies its ancestors would only be able to run away from. They have also led to changes in its diet.

As the cyclopes became accustomed to striking their foes with their tusks rather than running for their lives, somewhere along the line they also discovered that defensive adaptations can sometimes also make for good offense. Cyclops are omnivores, more like thorngrazers than other tribbymaras, which sometimes use their tusks to slash at smaller animals, including other types of tribbymara, which do not yet recognize them as a predator. The cyclops does not act like a carnivore, and its calm plodding nature - the demeanor and dull eyes of a peaceful plant-eater lends a false sense of security to its prey until it turns suddenly from the grass it has been munching and gores them, then ravenously chows down on the carcass.

Cyclops are social animals, but their herd structures are prone to conflict as males fight over access to groups of breeding females. The males now use their tusks to shove one another, locking teeth and trying to knock over their opponent. But teeth aren't really made for this use, and so sometimes the tusks break off. For most animals which fight with their horns, this is the end - a loser so injured is unlikely to ever breed again. But the tusks of the cyclops, being aberrant projections from constantly growing teeth plates, naturally regenerate  - they can return to their full size in just under five weeks. This means they are actually a very effective fighting tool, one which can heal itself when others cannot, and which means even the vanquished of today will get another go at winning a mate tomorrow.

Rarely in nature are mutations beneficial - most are deleterious, reducing the survival chances of the animal that has them. And yet evolution relies on them - so long is time, and so numerous are living things, that not only do some mutations inevitably occur which aid their owner's survival, but that this is how all new species are formed, constantly, now and for as long as living things have existed. That a molodont tooth mutation as has occurred in the cyclops has taken until now to appear is a testament to how rarely such a thing is anything but harmful. But now that a single species has developed a stable version of a once destructive mutation, which now lends itself to many new uses, speciation is inevitable as different lineages will soon begin to specialize their teeth into more specific roles.