Against decadence

Antarctic biota was immensely depleted by the extinction of ducktails: like all megafauna, they were the bioengineers of the continent, shaping the ecology of other animals and plants. Without them, the antarctic biota was inevitably going to collapse.
Still, in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity; a handful of species benefitted from the sudden disappearance of ducktails, including the infernal coalgraspers (Infernops carbo): this small-sized flightless bird is a late surviving lineage of rostrids, the main ducktail competitors of the Lentocene. More precisely, the infernal coalgrasper is an advanced form of semiarboreal woodclimbers. This species has evolved a unique anatomical trait: in a similar way to holocenic jacanas, their wing bones are robust and work as a pocket to brood eggs and chicks. This adaptation probably evolved to move their nestlings away from high disturbance factors (mainly ducktails and predators).

Already restricted to few mountain forests, coalgraspers were able to survive only in two Green Refuges. The largest population can be found in the Clifforest, where around 600 coalgrapser were able to survive the END. The second population can be found in the Willowcoal Peninsula, numbering no more than 300 individuals.
With the disappearance of ducktails and other ground predators, these birds would have rapidly flourished if it wasn't for the slow recovery of forest habitats. With the start of the Cambiocene, coalgraspers' populations increased, but the high homozygosity rapidly reduced their recruitment rate in the following millennia.
Thankfully for them, the unification of the two populations (which happened 2000 years after the END) gave a strong enough genetic boost that helped coalgraspers to escape the vortex of extinction. Thanks to their capacity of digesting lignin inherited by the first rostrid, coalgraspers could exploit nearly any type of plant matter.

Still incapable of expanding their range in the fern thickets, infernal coalgraspers will increase their territory only by following woodland expansion. But this will not be a problem: with no ducktails bothering them, rostrids have the chance to finally shine again together with other outstanding species.

They are not bad copies anymore, they are perfect reprints!