Raceraptor

285 Million Years Post-Establishment

The raceraptors are a genus of viridescent sawjaw descendants which specialize in persistence hunting, running in small family packs. They are long-legged, long-necked, and long-tailed. But it is the length of their runs which is most impressive. The stunningly patterned reticulated raceraptor is not faster than the thorngrazers, birds, and other prey it pursues on the open grasslands of its habitat along the arctic plateau in northwest Serinarcta. When it appears on the horizon, they will run swiftly away and leave it behind. But its stride is long, its pacing steady. It dissipates heat effectively by expanding capillaries just beneath its skin; its fur is very short, and its torso small while its extremities are elongated and thin, the opposite of an animal which would evolve in a cold climate where heat would need to be retained. And so it can run further, staying behind but always keeping a target in its sight, without becoming fatigued even in the midday sun in high humidity conditions. Like a jogger versus a sprinter, it can maintain its relatively slow pace of around 7 miles per hour and not tire at all, at least for several hours. But each time its quarry flees at full speed and stops ahead to catch its breath, it comes closer to exhaustion. And each time it looks back, the raceraptors are still on the horizon, trailing behind. They are visual hunters, in contrast to most sawjaws which rely on scent to track. On the open plains, they can keep an eye on their target even from several miles distant with their particularly forward-placed eyes, capable of remarkable long-distance perception. They also rely on sight to keep track of one another; this species has evolved a bright blue tail tuft, an unusual color, because it contrasts sharply against the surroundings like a flag, keeping families close together. Blue is especially visible to a raceraptor because, unlike many contemporary animals, it is color blind to both red and green, the result of a nocturnal bottleneck in a recent ancestor where color vision was less important than clarity of detail at night. And so a rarely seen blue colored object, flashing through the grass, functions like a beacon of unmistakable color in a sea of grey and brown and gold.

Persistence hunting of a single victim is a simple and yet almost sinister way of hunting, and one which few can ever escape, no matter how fast. A group of reticulated raceraptors passes by many other potential prey in its dogged focus upon a single chosen target, for they are such efficient runners that their success relies on being decisive and following the same individual, rather than switching to another, even if the alternative may appear closer, for it will not yet have begun to tire, and will have an advantage in the end against hunters who started running before it. And the raceraptors make no efforts to hide, for they have no need. Their vibrant tails are just as visible to prey as to their own families. Their prey always knows they are following, and runs and runs and runs. But once chosen, it can't escape the raceraptors' keen sight. Instinct and fear only tell it to run faster, but to do so wears it out, while its enemies have never over-exerted themselves and catch up before their target can ever rest. Until eventually, it can run no more. Worn out and unable to carry on, prey falls to the ground, panting, every muscle of their bodies out of energy and heavy like lead. And then there is nothing left to do but wait. Perhaps ten, perhaps twenty minutes, or even as long as an hour later, the raceraptors will at last reach it. They will surround it, instinctively cutting off escape even though by now, the hapless animal couldn't walk another step. They appear celebratory; a successful catch will incite them toward playfulness, and they nuzzle one another as if to say "good job, we did it." They claim success before the kill, for by now their victim is no better than dead. It cannot get even the energy to stand, let alone to run. So the raptors may take their time.

Its best hope, now, is that the pack is hungry enough to quickly and relatively humanely dispatch it; a sharp throat bite cuts off the airways and causes the world to go black and quiet in less than a minute. Sometimes, though, there may be one or two young present on the back of a parent; they may now drop off and approach their parents' victim as the adults may encourage them to practice their hunting techniques. And in this case, the darkness will not come quick or quiet, but rather by a thousand small cuts - its end a slow, grueling game. The pups of course are not motivated by malice. This is how they learn to be independent adults, and how they must be in order to survive. Because their way of hunting is highly efficient and yet different from most predators, they have lost earlier inter-species bonds with other animals that might, once, have allowed them to understand the minds of unrelated creatures to some degree. They are still picky eaters - packs will favor one type of animal over others, and this may influence their choice to follow one creature so far while ignoring others that may seem easier to catch. But the raceraptors forge no bonds outside their own kind any longer. They are not evil creatures, but they are ignorant to the feelings of the loopalopes they terrorize, as have been most predators to their prey in all of natural history. To be anything else, before the Ultimocene, would have been strikingly abnormal. It is only now, when behavioral complexity is higher than ever before and many animals have overcome this ancient rule, that the behavior of this sawjaw may come across as unusually cruel. Evolution operates without goals, however, and increasing complexity - of both form and behavior - is only a trend. It has never been the rule, and even when specific predator and prey species may learn ways to get along, it is still a limited reprieve - safety and perhaps mutual understanding for them, but never for all. For life to exist, there will always have to be death. Even the symbiotic ones must choose someone else to die for them to live. For the reticulated raceraptor, it merely takes no favorites. Its own kind is its world, and the key to the persistence of their genetic line is in working together with their kind alone. Anything else is fair game, if it catches their watchful eye...