As the growing herds of angry Brute Grazers spread across the open Grasslands their trampling feet cave in the ground creating an opportunity for burrowing animals to move into burrows safely below the ground free from the harsh winter weather and predators above them and one of these new species is the Burrowing Jaw.
The Burrowing Jaw is large indeed at around the size of a Capybara this Jutter Jaw is larger than all of the other Squid Rodents that it shares the burrows with and it uses its power to its full advantage.
With how much larger the Burrowing Jaw is than other Squid Rodents usually no bigger than a marmot the Burrowing Jaw can easily overpower other borrowers from their homes simply by being so much bigger. The only animal that even comes close in size is the burrowing Blish the Dodirt whose lightweight skeleton inherited from their flying ancestor makes them far lighter and easy to overpower.
Burrowing Jaws make their homes wherever they see fit living in burrows along the sides of hills in the open grasslands and feeding on roots and shoots of grass.
Unlike other Squid Rodents, Burrowing Jaws are not social animals living in burrows by themselves as males have no parental involvement, and females crushing beaks are well-equipped to defend themselves and their young from predators that try and get in burrows as well as subterranean Sneasels stoat like Foxskin descendants whose flexible gladius lets them slink through burrows in pursuit of prey.
The rather invasive habits of the Burrowing Jaw combined with their large litter sizes and fast breeding rates have displaced many of the other burrowing animals of the Grasslands. Some like the Sqerboa have returned to the surface with their modified legs in tow.
One, in particular, is the Dodirt burrowing Pigeon Blish that are the only flightless bliss to have forearms long enough to walk on have been pushed out into the open world. To keep themselves safe from the various predators the Dodirt started to move into Lichen Forest stands of connected Absorbent Sucker trees encouraged to grow together by the trampling of Brute Grazers.
And it is amongst these shadowy stands of Lichen Trees you kind find The Forest Wanderer
This iguana size animal can be found scampering through the floor of the Lichen Forest. The Forest Wanderer is perhaps the most aberrant of all Blish looking more like a weird bird lizard than a ray-finned fish trying to pass as a Pterosaur like most Blish.
The Forest Wanderer being forced out of its burrows has resulted in it further developing the Dodirt's terrestrial adaptations. Its front limb spurs derived from the Blishs fin rays are now equipped with keratinous claws instead of being simple spurs. The Forest Wanderer's front limbs now function like actual front limbs letting them stride across the forest floor.
Although they are better on the ground than any other Blish the Forest Wanderer rarely leaves the safety of the Lichen Forest as although it may look like a Tetrapod its front limbs lack a proper wrist resulting in them striding around like there on stilts or running in an awkward bounding motion with their 5th limb usually being carried off the ground for balance.
Forest Wanderers are omnivorous, sorting through the leaf litter for various invertebrates and dead plant matter. Forest Wanderers in turn have a better sense of smell than most Blish aside from the Raptorial Blish to facilitate their sense of smell a patch of skin around their nostrils which lets them sniff out food in the shadowy gloom of the Lichen Forest as well as the additional bonus of warming the air before they breathe it in as unlike the Lichen Forests other residents they can't leave the forest in winter and spend the dark cold months amongst the dense patches of shrubs and tree holes until the warmer weather returns.