Other Lands:

There are two main points of interest on land besides Catland. Unlike Catland, these other lands are not inhabited by any cats (yet). There are many island chains are archipelagos on the planet formed by volcanic activity. Volcanoes erupt at a higher rate than on Earth because the planet is still much younger and internally hotter. Soloa is a very large island, nearly a micro-continent in size, that is covered in the remnants of eruptions and flows, while there is almost always at least one eruption occuring somewhere on the land.

The other major land on this planet consists of three connected continents collectively known as Polarcardiva. It starts from the baked, barren equator at Cardiva, and ends up in the "spruce desert" Norpolarica at the polar North, where the dominating spruce create a hostile low-diversity habitat for the other forms of life trying to compete in this cool region. Between is Neapolarica, a temperate wet continent that gets increasingly drier, hotter and grassier to it's South. The wetter North is almost forested except the elderberry shrubs don't yet qualify as trees due to their sideways, bowing-over growth habit, but they are still very large shrubs that create forest-like habitat.

Norpolarica: The Spruce Desert

Norpolarica is a "spruce desert" - not a true desert as it has plenty of rainfall and high biomass, but rather because there is low diversity of species. In this part of the world there were few plants introduced before the death of the breakaway humans 100,000 years prior and following that, from the climate swings this planet has experienced since humans first colonised. Spruce is an exception which has held strong and now makes up all of this continent's forests. It creates an acidic soil when the needle leves it sheds decompose, making the ground hostile not only to pathogens but also other plants that compete for space, water and nutrients. This has a knock-on effect on animal diversity resulting in few plant and animal species overall. 

It has just a few surviving viviparous lizard descendants which includes Tundra Slow Lizard (Vivipara fodiens) , a tiny, cold, sluggish, long-bodied reptile that won't move unless it has to, and in winter it digs a down-then-sideways burrow to keep out of rain and meltwater trickle and lets it's body go freezing cold to survive the winter hibernation. They can't survive total freezing, to survive their internal organs are chilled to almost freezing but not frozen (but due to tiny bodies that freeze and thaw very quickly, and a high rate of tissue regeneration, very young new lizards may survive total freezing sometimes). This is another essential function of the burrow, to have an enclosed space where the air temperature does not fluctuate much. They close their burrow for maximum insulation with a thin mud wall. The lizards will use so little oxygen over their hibernation that the diffusion of oxygen and co2 through this thin, porous wall will suffice. When they thaw, the increased need for oxygen will trigger a brief surge in energy that gives them the strength to break the wall, further motivated by the smell of fresh air diffusing in from behind it. Burrow building is their most active time of the year, when they also have to build fat and find time to pick off the last of the summer bounty of worms, insects and newly born lizards before they also hunker down for winter.

Neapolarica:

This is the truly fertile part of this continent chain. It receives frequent rainfall, though less so going South. Plant diversity is booming comapred to up North. Neapolarica supports more species of insects, soil invertebrates and a more diverse range of descendants of the viviparous lizard. This land receives snow in winter, more so in the shrubby forest-like Northern half, and drought in summer, more so in the open grassy Southern half. So far lizard species only have each other to compete with, although newborn lizards are occasionally taken out by particularly large and agressive cave crickets. While normally scavengers of woody or fibrous organic matter, these insects take the opportunity to eat anything they can and outsize competitor invetebrates for the chance to hunt a tiny and vulnerable vertebrates.

There are no cats or predatory sparrows here. Yet the Grass Lizard  (Vivipara campucauda) with it's green and yellow colouration, and long, winding tail that supports it's movement through the unstable sea of grass, appears to be camouflaged. It can seem invisible in it's habitat, pressed up against a blade of grass or itself resembling one, up until it moves or winks making itself apparent. Because they're so small they can survive on very tiny prey, such as gnats that subsist on grass juice. They also eat prey such as caterpillars and butterflies, or grain-munching mealworms and the adult beetles but some species of these prey items are too large for this tiny lizard and can sometimes escape during the struggle. The benefit of being so tiny is that they require less food and can conceal themselves easier.

In dry spells these lizards respond by turning golden. This is triggered by a visual cue, the lessening or absence of the exposure of green light from the environment to their eyes. A hormone response triggers a biological process that breaks down the structural blue in their scales, as well as hastening the next skin shed. This way they remain camouflaged to other lizards (which can discern green from yellow and blue from green), even as the grass wilts and changes colour, though male grass lizard's tails might remain green.

Their predator is another lizard species, one that more closely resembles a slightly larger example of the ancestral viviparous lizard. The Grass-stalker Lizard (Vivipara campuvenator) diet is a mixture of vertebrate and invertebrate, as where there are rivers it will also hunt (and be hunted by) Northern hemisphere species of trout. There are also many other lizard species besides the grass lizards to hunt. They have tough skin under their already tough scales and smaller prey usually have no offense against them.

However there is one lizard species that does not as frequently prey on other lizards but instead has a more generalist diet which includes the eggs of the few egg-laying lizards, fruit and some young leaf buds as well as prey like insects and lizards. This species is the Spiny Lizard (Vivipara spinosus). Their sharp nose will also lead them to the corpses of other animals from a greater distance. Due to their rubustness and also thick skin, lizards normally predatory to other lizards won't touch this one, unless they are still small and immature.

Cardiva:

Cardiva is the hottest of the three conjoined continents. It's South crosses the equator and is too hot to support any life yet. The North of Cardiva is the greatest extreme of heat that life can survive in, and supports mainly desert plant species, and a few tropical rainforest species in marginal highland areas where rainfall is high enough and temperature low enough.

There are very few lizards, all in the Northern third of the continent. One of those lizards is the Burnt Brick Lizard (Vivipara coctilis), which is usually orange to red and black but may also have white or yellow markings. Their adaptations are towards conservation of water and energy, as well as to cope with heat. They raise their bodies from the ground with their tails as a prop when they can't find shelter and the ground is too hot to lie on, however this takes up a lot of energy contrary to their strategy, so it is a last resort. They prefer to stay close to shelter, caves in particular where much of their insect prey can also be found. While Cardiva remains mostly barren, caves are a relatively inviting habitat in the Northern most habitable half of the continent. They are supplemented by organic material and nutrients being washed underground by seasonal rain.