My Descendants and I

That evolution can turn one species to another over millions of years is easy to understand. What is sometimes forgotten, though, is that just because a species descends into a new form, it does not necessarily mean the earlier form is instantly lost. If the ancestral species remains well-adapted to a niche, it can split into two populations. Once the two forms are reproductively isolated even a little, just enough that they begin to breed with their own forms more than with each other, then they can begin to diverge. The earlier form may remain more or less the same over a long timespan, while the other adapts to a new environment and so changes more quickly. In the early hothouse, 275 MPE, the scroungers demonstrate this phenomenon very well. 

above: 4 scrounger forms of the early hothouse: from left to right are depicted a natatory scrounger (a fisher), a primal scrounger (a social land predator), a scansorial scrounger (a solitary, climbing predator) and the shorescrounger from which they all evolved ( a semi-social, opportunistic scavenger.)

The first scrounger species to diverge from the snowscrounger, within one million years of the great thaw, was the shorescrounger, Lolligoconeus littorvenator. Functionally identical to its precursor except for slightly longer legs, less feathers, and a more brightly colored face, it was the first scrounger adapted to hunt in a world devoid of ice. A true generalist, it ate nearly anything that washed onto the beaches in the early days before much lived inland. But soon after, the southern land evolved a new, diverse ecosystem of plants and animals - even trees reappeared. So, while plenty of shorescroungers stayed near the sea coast, some also were able to move deeper inland. Some hunted along the ground, catching the chicks of sealumps and unwary burdles. Others grew stronger legs and tightly recurved talons that let them climb up the trees to raid bird's nest and ambush passing prey. And still another branch of shorescrounger moved the other direction, into a sea largely wiped clean of its ice age inhabitants and with niches open for taking; they became more aquatic, wading out to sea and even diving to catch fish and small snarks.

Already three distinct lineages of scroungers now exist, coexisting with the surviving form of the shorescrouger that has remained unchanged. The terrestrial primal scroungers now hunt inland, scurrying through undergrowth and swamp. They have again become smaller than the lanky shorescrounger in order to more easily run through thick vegetation, and are now the most social scroungers, demonstrating great cohesion in their numbers and using cooperation to take down large prey, always using tools to do so.

Next comes the semi-arboreal scansorial scroungers, cat-like predators of the new forests with powerful jumping legs that let them leap up tree trunks and pounce down on prey. They are the most solitary scroungers, and rarely live in groups larger than a pair. Small hooks on the tentacles of all scroungers have become larger and fiercer in these animals, which use them along with their talons to catch prey and so have come to rely little, if at all, on the tools they once made.

Lastly, the semi-aquatic natatory scroungers now make their living off the sea, taking a more proactive approach to find food there than their scavenging ancestor. They are tall waders, but also capable swimmers, with lobed feet that help them move quicker in the water. The hooks on the inner edges of their tentacles have also become more important to feeding but remain numerous and small, functioning to hold slippery prey without dropping it. Tool use is rare, but most species are social to some degree, usually in a non-cooperative way.

Though these four scrounger forms are specialized each to a different sort of habitat, they still meet where their worlds come together, particularly in the southern saltswamp, where forests, swamps, and the ocean shore all occur together in close proximity. All of these forms now look distinct, and are behaviorally distinct enough that interbreeding between them is infrequent, though they are still cross-fertile. But as intelligent, clannish animals, scroungers are not readily inclined to view others that look different as partners as much as rivals, and these animals are now competitors more than anything else. A windfall of free meat on the shore, such as a beached porplet carcass, can draw any of them in, and bring together cousins rapidly growing apart to bicker over who gets to claim the prize. As the largest among them, and the only one still truly adapted to life on the beach, it is usually the aloof but very observant shorescrounger itself that ultimately swoops in and takes the carcass - usually after waiting for the others to tire themselves fighting over it first. For now, they are all only visitors to this realm, and as their lineages continue to breed only among themselves, they will only grow less and less adapted to live here. The shorescrounger, however, will remain here nearly unchanged for another five million years, by which time its descendants may well be wholly unrecognizable.