Aardfowl

Despite being less initially adapted for terrestrial lifestyles flightless Blish like the Heptiles and Cock of the Flock manage to brute force their way into niches on the supper continent with the Tera Squids.

Aardfowl are one of the smallest Terrestrial Ichthopterans, no bigger than a farm chicken closer in size to its immediate ancestor and to the distantly related Rapducken and Strid Raptor.

Although the Stride Raptor and Rapducken are their closest relatives and vice-versa the relations are still distant having diverged some 14 million years ago. Comprising its own genus the Aardfowl has multiple characteristics their bones are still almost wholly cartilage as well as a lack of sexual dimorphism seen in other Cock of the Flocks with males retaining the colorful dewlap and the head feathers much more modest than their relatives.

In the ever-competitive grasslands, the Aardfowl have taken on a new dietary strategy. That of an insectivore. With a large supply of eusocial insects, the Aardfowl has converged on the body plan of an Alverasaur with similar single-clawed forelimbs to break into nests and sensitive whiskers and tongues to get at prey. Blish in particular are advantaged at probing for insects with their flexible and extendable palette letting them reach further into mounds then most Tertapods.