Circuagodonts of the Serinaustran Steppe

Circuagodonts, specialized grazing and browsing molodonts, are now widespread and very successful in the early Ultimocene world. These species can all be found on Serinaustra, Serina's southern continent, 250 million years post-establishment.

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1. The strangest of all circuagodonts, carnivorous gorks are only distantly related to all other living species, having diverged very early in their evolutionary history as far back as the early Pangeacene - they are not closely related to other predatory species. The golden-crested gork is a piscivore, specifically adapted to wade in shallow water on its forelegs alone, while lifting its hind leg into a suspended posture from which it will kick out and catch unwary fish in its opposable, deeply-hooked claws. They are an uncommon species on the steppe, which is traditionally arid, but they can be locally abundant along permanent watercourses in its low lying regions, and become particularly numerous as one goes toward the coastal plain where wetlands begin to dominate the region. A solitary and aloof animal, this circuagodont lives singly for it requires a riverside territory of its own to support itself, and it will express its displeasure if disturbed by emitting a hoarse croak and snapping its long pincer-like teeth together to produce a rapid clacking. Standing up to five feet high, it has few significant enemies due to its seclusive nature, preference for habitat with lots of cover in the form of tall reeds in which to hide, and a formidable defensive weapon in its hind claws.

2. One of the largest circuagodonts, the shaggy clawnager is a monotypic species with no immediate relatives, but it is part of the main branch of the circuagodont family tree and as such is closer to all other living species than it is to the gorks. Clawnagers can weigh up to a thousand pounds and are mixed-feeding herbivore-leaning omnivores that consume a wide variety of plants and some animal matter. They expand their dietary options with unusually large forearm claws, with which they can turn up the sod and unearth roots, tubers and invertebrates, and they may sometimes take advantage of their size and intimidating talons to usurp carrion from more specialized predators, though they are not the largest bully on the block and will not press their luck with animals larger than themselves. Their broad diet benefits them in winter when grass is dry and poor in nutrition, and they are powerful diggers, able to chisel even through frozen terrain. Their tooth-beak is robust but blunt from feeding on foods covered in soil, which wears down its sharp edges faster than the tooth can regrow. Adult males, up to 25% larger than their mates, are solitary while females are social and live in small related herds of five to twenty with their offspring and several generations of female elders. Single males may associate with herds of smaller circuagodonts for vigilance to spot large or pack-hunting predators, and in turn may defend their adoptive groups from these foes; one well-placed swat from their mighty arms can cripple a predator nearly as large as themselves. Female groups are all but invulnerable, though their calves are small and defenseless for a long time after birth.

3. Stribok are the most numerous southern circuagodont, with a population of 7 million. A seemingly archetypal species of the group, they are gregarious grass-eating animals with wedge-shaped grinding jaws that narrow to clipping shears at their distal tip. But the stribok's success lies in its versatility. It is close to the ancestry of the carnivore wheeljaws, the main lineage of predator circuagodonts, found on both continents albeit in different forms. As such, it is capable of omnivory. As it grazes, it roots into the soil with its teeth to access grubs, and it readily consumes bird's eggs it finds on the grassland in the spring months. In winter, herds will cannibalize those among their ranks which fall ill or weak and lag behind the herd so as to keep the survivors in fit condition and to avoid their predators gaining any energy from feeding on their lagging members. This opportunistic carnivory sometimes leads to the spread of illnesses, including prion-like proteins which can infect a large percentage of the population and cause huge die-offs. The stribok is seemingly adapted to endure this, and females can bear two young each spring in good conditions, recovering their numbers in several years, only to eventually reach an unsustainable peak where green food grows too scarce in winter to support them, and they turn on one another, likely leading to another outbreak and swinging the cycle back to where it began. Stribok are fast runners, capable of reaching 50 miles per hour in a sustained gallop. Their feet are padded with rough, thick skin while blunt nails cover the tip of each digit, protecting from injury over hard, sometimes frozen ground. While their first line of defense is to bolt at top speed, if cornered they are fierce fighters and can deliver gory triangular bite wounds to both enemies and rivals; the teeth are slightly serrated - an artifact of occasional meat-eating - and so predators must be careful to make a very clean and quick kill, or the tables may suddenly turn.

4. Quiggas are a kind of large grazing circuagodont, only slightly smaller than clawnagers, weighing up to 850 lbs. They are long-legged and well-suited to travel widely over the steppe in seasonal migrations to find food, but they are not especially fast and so rely more on large herds and cooperative defenses to avoid predation. Like the stribok, they will fight their predators, though in their case this is their first line of defense, as they cannot outrun most of them in a short burst, though their endurance is excellent and they can walk for long distances nearly indefinitely. Their teeth are blunter, for these animals only eat grass, but their forelegs are sturdy and they can kick outwards with enough force to break an enemy's jaw, or they may rise up on their hind leg and stomp down on a predator, jabbing their large wrist spur - common to most circuagodonts - into eyes or other sensitive parts. These circuagodonts are named with onomatopoeia for their extremely loud, raucous calls which sound like undulating laughter, but which are actually most often produced when under distress or during conflict. When at ease, they communicate with their herdmates with soft chuckling noises which can only be heard at close range. Both sexes live together in large herds, each comprised of smaller harems typically lead by one male. Females do all child-care, but related ones will attend not only their own calf, but also those of their kin, keeping them together in creches for safety. Males, while capable of defending their young from enemies, are also a threat; rivals often try to take over a harem, and if they succeed they may kill the calves sired by the previous leader. Females will try to prevent this by working together to prevent the male from doing so for long enough that his own scent will transfer onto them through the females. If they can keep him at bay for the first few tense days, his aggression subsides and he will treat them as his own.

5. Smeerps, such as this steppe smeerp, are the most basal of the true circuagodonts, the clade containing all species except for the gorks. They have no wrist spur, a trait otherwise present in all members of this group. Unlike the gorks, they do not even have a dewclaw. These are the smallest circuagodonts and assuredly the most timid, and their loss of this melee defense goes hand in hand with their total lack of aggressive behavior. They are solitary, hiding in tall grass from the many things that would eagerly eat them if they could, and relying exclusively on their speed and agility to escape these enemies - if caught, they merely go limp, and do not defend themselves, for they are fragile and know that their only possible chance of breaking free is to immediately play dead and hope their hunters momentarily puts them down so they can break away again. Females produce as many as six young per litter and hide them away in a thicket, visiting as little as once every other day to nurse them and quickly groom them, cleaning the nest of any waste; by otherwise staying away, she avoids giving away their location to predators with her scent. The young are independent in only 28 days, and go off on their own well before reaching their adult size; they may begin breeding in just another month, and their mother can bear two or three litters per summer. Most live less than a year, though the very fastest and wariest of all may live up to four seasons and bear dozens of young in their brief, fast lifetimes.

6. The wrestlear is a burly, robust circuagodont which can weigh 750 pounds. A loosely social browser, it is only present along the margins of the steppe, for its diet of woody shrubs is more numerous in slightly wetter habitats such as are found just to the north of this biome. These circuagodonts are slow-moving but aggressive, with especially large, curving teeth that can deliver a debilitating bite, but are primarily used to crop twigs from bushes. Males sport modified ears with horn-like protuberances along their edges; they lower their heads in contests of strength to compete for mates, and lock their ears together to avoid their heads slipping to either side during these shoving matches. The ear is jointed midway along its length, and can bend forward to meet that of another wrestlear, grabbing onto its ear with a tight hold as the spikes along them interlock together. Females, with smaller horns on their ears, use gentler variations on the same type of touch to affirm social bonds; mothers lower their heads when traveling with their calves so as to let the young ones hold their ears so they do not get left behind. Though not a fast animal, the wrestlear is a good traveler and when populations rise, large herds may form which can travel for hundreds of miles, passing through less hospitable regions including open grassland and even going as far as the sea coast in their trek to find new feeding grounds. For this reason, this species has a surprisingly wide range and while only rarely found in the steppe itself, is abundant both north and south of it, in temperate forest and tundra-taiga border regions with more woody plants.

7. Jackalamb, one of the southern region's representatives of the carnivore circuagodont clade, which includes several larger species, but none so widespread and adaptable as this one. The jackalamb is an omnivore with a preference for flesh foods, living in pairs or in small packs and following herds of smaller grazers like the stribok relentlessly, killing their calves in the spring and picking off their weak in the winter - even competing with the striboks themselves for this resource when their own food is scarce. They are among the most pressing enemies of smeerps, with keen sense of smell, and many a nest of smeerp young has been wiped out by a jackalamb, which will even search an area in a wide grid pattern if it has a hunch there may be babies hiding nearby that is cannot smell. It is both quick, reaching a top speed of 40 miles, and capable of running for a long time without tiring or injuring its feet on hard ground, with two primary hoofed toes per foreleg and two smaller dewclaws that only touch the ground when traversing soft snow or muddy terrain. The protruding portion of its teeth may be small, but they are finely serrated like a steak knife to slice through muscle and sinew like butter, while the jaws are very large and robust, strong enough to crush and chew the long leg bones of prey animals. In spring and summer, it supplements its meat diet with a small amount of greenery and rare, fleeting findings of berries and with the eggs of nesting birds. It is the only circuagodont to make a den below ground, digging a burrow to rear its young, usually born in sets of twins. Male and female form pair bonds to rear their offspring and may be assisted by subordinate siblings or their own older, still immature pups. Though they are already quite different from most other circuagodonts, jackalambs are less derived than other Serinaustran predatory species, and could be viewed as the closest link between them and their northern counterparts.

The Ruffalo

The grisler is early-Ultimocene Serinaustra's largest land predator, but it is only one of several formidable carnivores evolved upon this temperate land to feed on the numerous herds of grazers. More common and more active in its hunting, the ruffalo is no less threatening. A southern representative of the carnivorous wheeljaws, and the biggest of the lot, the ruffalo can reach a height at its shoulders of six feet and an average weight of 900 pounds, making it not only the largest predatory circuagodont, but among the largest circuagodonts, period (and making the related jackalamb look like a lap dog.) Very long legs and a short torso work together put its center of balance just behind its shoulders, making it easier to pull its single hind leg forward when walking. The ruffalo runs with a strange bounding gait at a pace of up to 35 miles per hour, despite its great size, and it is among the fastest tripeds of its size class. With a lifestyle based on constant movement and quick attacks, the ruffalo has become unguligrade, evolving the once claw-like nails on their feet into hooves, which now protect the toes from rocky terrain as well as seasonal ice. Four toes remain on the forefeet, with three on the hind, only one of which bears weight except when traversing very soft substrate such as mud. A bulbous, furry sinus on the snout of the ruffalo serves as an air intake, in which cold polar air is heated before entering the lungs, allowing this predator to keep moving quickly even in winter's bitter cold grip.

Ruffalos mainly hunt other circuagodonts, especially other large species like the clawnager, but are often slower and set lower to the ground. They are solitary predators which trail herds of grazers and always lurk at the edges of the group, seeding panic and worry as they keep an eye out for the old, the sick or the slow. They keep the herds constantly moving, which helps prevent overgrazing of the steppe and tundra environments of the southern continent, and they test the herd constantly for weakness, biting at their heels, looking for the weakest link. They seek to outmaneuver their selected target rather than catch it by surprise, running around and snapping at its legs until it tires and then lunging for the kill, getting a deadly bite onto its throat. The herd will rarely do anything to assist it, for the time bought by its death allows the others to get a lead and escape the ever-present eyes of their enemy, if only for a short time. The once plant-clipping teeth of the ruffalo are now sharpened by their wearing against one another into a set of deadly meat-chopping shears, which cut flesh from carcasses and neatly pull the last scraps of meat from bone.

There is no sharing between these hunters, which while all equally nomadic and without territories will not tolerate a rival anywhere near their kill. Social conflicts may be solved with posturing, in which opponents will raise their manes of bristly fur to appear larger. Actual physical confrontations are common too, for the easiest meal is the one someone else brought down. As they are common animals, and among the most numerous predators of the herds, it isn't unknown for two to engage in combat over a carcass, allowing a wiser third individual to rush in and take the prize for itself. Only mothers and their single offspring have any social ties, and even these are fleeting; unlike most carnivores of the ultimocene, which are likely to have strong parental care, the ruffalo only attends its pup for a few months as it is dependent at a den site dig into a slope or in dense woody vegetation, from which it will emerge only to be fed and then retreat again to hide from danger. The young one is abandoned long before approaching its adult size, when it may be only around 200 pounds. Yet it will already be able to fend for itself by that time, with long legs to outrun its quarry and fully grown scissor-like jaws. The juvenile fills a different niche from the adult for several years and is even faster, reaching running speeds of 55 miles an hour in short bursts as it ambushes smaller, quicker circuagodonts as well as other prey such as the fleet-footed terries, a subclass of tentacled birds. As it ultimately ages and its speed lessens, it transitions from a secretive stalk-and-chase hunting behavior toward always following the herds, always visible, but always waiting to strike. By the time it is mature, it knows that it is inescapable; there will always be someone lingering behind, who just can't keep up with the rest. The ruffalo will be waiting.