Swampsaw

A large, theropodal predator, the swampsaw represents the sawjaws' first ventures toward much larger body sizes as their bipedal body shape becomes better balanced and suited to bearing weight.

The largest land predator of the Trilliontrees now, this hunter represents an opposing branch of hothouse sawjaws from the agile viridescent and its relatives which became smaller animals, by evolving into large and powerful predators. Descended from the sturdier strongarmed sawjaw of 5 million years ago, they now reach lengths of up to 17 feet and a height of 9 feet, and weigh as much as 1200 pounds. Because they can run on only their two front limbs in a theropodal posture, they can surpass the usual size limits of other tripedal tribbetheres without sacrificing any agility, and so the swampsaw despite its size is still a fast and nimble animal. Like its ancestors it hunts in groups, and as must be assumed by its size, its prey is now also far bigger relative to it than the thorngrazers that its ancestors took. The swampsaw is now primarily a predator of large skuorcs such as soggobblers and the skogre, a semi-aquatic browser that travels constantly between islands in this archipelagic region as it depletes the canopies of food. This carnivore has also evolved its own swimming adaptations including a webbed tail with thick cartilaginous membranes along its length to provide propulsion and toes webbed halfway down their lengths, letting it trail its prey as they migrate and cross distances of several miles between islands. Yet it is not without its own enemies - the seas between the islands are now stalked by new and even worse threats that the swampsaw fears as much if not more than its prey does in the form of the bloodthirsty sea snails known as calacarnas. Its range is thus limited by the dangers posed which increase with each mile of open water, and only extends to those islands in the region which can be crossed most readily, with only shallow vegetated seas between in which these sea monsters rarely venture. This leaves many of the most outlying ones, such as those inhabited by the pummel, still free of any large terrestrial predators at all.

Adults soggoblers are aggressive and so are a difficult prey for the swampsaw, even working as a typical familial pack of five to ten animals, and it can usually kill them only in deep water as they cross rivers or lakes in the coastal ranges that these two species overlap. Adult skogres meanwhile are nearly impossible to bring down, for they are even larger and armored with defensive spikes, but the young of both species, born in great numbers and relying on speed and agility to survive, are much more vulnerable. Juveniles ranging from about half as heavy as an adult swampsaw to about four times it size - several years old and in between the very different life stages of chick and adult - form the basis of the swampsaw's diet. A pack will need to kill several smaller adolescents a day to survive, though a larger animal will sustain them for as long as a week, at the cost of being harder to kill and requiring a great deal of teamwork to bring down, at the risk of harm or even death to some members of the pack, as even half-grown skogres have fully-developed defensive spiked claws that can be used to skewer an unwary hunter. Fortunately for the survival of their species, if not their individuals, those few adults of the giant skuorcs which do manage to reach adulthood reproduce frequently and with large litters, maintaining populations in spite of immense losses to predation in the years before they grow large enough to escape their enemies that are always watching and coming for them with gnashing teeth.