The Heptile

A very unique Blish breaks uncharted ground in the Lichen Forest

235 MYH. By numbers, Blish officially known as Ichthyopterans make up the most numerous terrestrial species by numbers with several thousand species outranking the Terra Squids by the number of living representatives.

However, most of these Ichthyopterans fly under the radar as most of these warm-blooded volant Actinopterygians retain a variation of the same basic body plan that vaguely looks like an AI-generated Pterosaur.

Of course, there are some Blish that break this trend. Flightless Blish of the Cryptoland Islands or the Rapducken on the mainland that resemble Maniraptor dinosaurs and marine species that resembled Icthtyosaurs funnily enough.

Joining the ranks of unique Blish is one that wouldn't stand out among Earth today but for Blish is a major milestone in their and Actinopterygii's evolution.

The Heptile is the first ray-finned fish to stand on its own for four feet.

Clinging to the stands of lichen trees among the open tundra where they are shielded from the worst of the ice age winter the Tegu-sized Heptiles are omnivores like their ancestors feeding on an assortment of leaves, seeds, invertebrates, and small game.

Well, their lifestyle is the same as earlier forums it is their anatomy that makes them stand out.

The claws on their front limbs are now held on the ground the phalanges and metacarpals flat and the carpals raised in an upward slope merging into the radius and ulna to form a fully functioning forlimb.

This is where the Heptile gets its clade name Heptametatarsalia (seven-metatarsals) for the seven joints in the limb and its resemblance to basal Avemetatarsalians.

For now, Heptiles are still confined to the Lichen Forests Well they are able to run as efficiently as a Tetrapod and can be very aggressive when confronted their relatively small size and lightweight mostly cartilage skeleton make them rather out of their league against Terra Squid.

Still, they represent uncharted territory for Ichthyopteran evolution and show a world increasingly diversifying as time moves forward.

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