Skoblin

One of the most peculiar animals which has rapidly achieved great success in the hothouse era is a species of specialized ornimorph which has, over hundreds of millions of years, managed to regress morphologically to a form that would not have seemed out of place in the Triassic Period, some five-hundred million years ago. It was however, this superficial regression that ensured its success in a world now both lush and depleted of most animal life; its body form was now incredibly malleable and versatile, so generalist that it could now transform into a multitude of forms and occupy any number of niches. This animal was of course the skuorc, the last surviving of the ancient squavians, and like the early dinosaurs of old, this creature was in perfect place to dominate the world.

The skoblin is one of the new descendants of the skuorc, a creature that looks as though it had been transplanted right from the eons-passed Mesozoic Era. A close relative of the scrunge, this species differs in being an obligate quadruped, only capable of rearing up on its hind legs for short periods, and with longer limbs of equal length, now held more upright; this has sacrificed much of the scrunge's underwater mobility for greater speed and endurance on dry land. The skoblin’s tail has become stiffened by ligaments that allow the animals to more easily pivot and turn while running. Now held erect, it has become broad and flattened, and has now become a useful signalling organ, with bright bands of red and black that the animals use to visually communicate with one another. The skoblins live in loose fission-fusion herds, forming malleable groups that come and go, with little in the way of strict social attachments. Herds of up to several-hundred can mingle in fertile feeding grounds, but groups of a dozen or less spread out widely over wetland and coastal regions are much more common. There’s little in the way of hierarchy amongst members of each group and members will often swap between groups when intermingling. This is vital for maintaining social cohesion and ensuring genetic diversity, preventing inbreeding in groups, as grazing skuorcs like these currently only make up a very small portion of Serinarcta’s biomass (especially compared to the much more numerous and diverse trunkos and thorngrazers). 

Skoblins are an adaptable species found throughout the northern continent and with an omnivorous diet that allows them to accommodate for regional food sources. The majority of their population is found throughout the eastern region of Serinarcta, as their webbed feet allow them to forage adeptly in the waterlogged wetlands, along the coast, or even out at sea. Similar to the scrunge, when threatened, the skoblin will attempt to flee to deep water if possible; they are powerful swimmers capable of paddling for several miles without tiring. This has allowed the skoblins to colonize many offshore landmasses, establishing numerous insular populations in the Trilliontree Islands, where they flourish in great numbers due to far less competition and fewer predators. Skoblins are primarily grazers, feeding on a variety of grasses, clover, waterweeds, and varying roots and tubers, but are not above eating any small animal they can catch, and commonly scavenge seafood that washes up along the shore. A long serrated beak allows them to keep their eyes high while foraging low to the ground, and more easily grasp and pull up vegetation. Like scrunges, juveniles tend to be more carnivorous than adults, as their greater agility allows them to more easily catch insects and other fast-moving prey, and it helps them gain nutrients more easily than consuming vegetation during their growth.

Skoblins produce between four and ten offspring at once and breed year-round, although members within each group will usually time their births to within a week or two of one another to maximize the chances of their offspring surviving. Young form creches soon after birth and travel alongside the adults; the parents will defend youngsters from predators, but otherwise provide minimal care. They do not distinguish their own young from any other nearby young and expect them to feed themselves immediately. Skoblins are born with a thick coat of down covering their whole body similar to precocious bird chicks, but this is gradually shed for a partial coat of oilier adult quills. This coat is strongly banded, as the main defence of the much smaller young skoblins is merely to flee into the brush and blend into the vegetation. Adults can reach just over three-hundred pounds and up to nine feet in length, large enough to defend themselves from most predators of this era with spike-like claws on their third fingers, a spur-like weapon that can be over four inches long, if unable to flee. This can result in devastating, possibly even fatal injury to even the largest and most fearsome sawjaw, carnackle, or gravedigger hunters. This additional defense makes them marginally tougher prey to tackle versus the related scrunge, which can only really defend itself by fleeing into water and submerging. 

Although not one of the most common or diverse animals in its ecosystem, animals such as the skoblin have a bright future in the hothouse. Its rapid evolution from the more lizard-like skuorc into a much larger and more dinosaurian form is already a clear sign of this coming era; increasingly large body sizes allow them to more easily digest vegetation, and in bigger quantities, while a highly pneumatic quadruped body allows them to reach far greater sizes than either thorngrazers or trunkos. A future dawns on Serina where descendants of the grazing skuorcs such as the skoblin and the scrunge have the potential to give rise to some of the grandest and most magnificent animals that have ever lived on this world.