Squid Rodents of the Late Îledescene
Part 2
Squid Rodents once again continue to be the most diverse of all Tera Squids in the Ice Box Age.
Found in every environment on every corner of the supercontinent this group would be comparable to Squmates in terms of the number and diversity of species even if most species tend to fly under the radar.
The first Squid Rodent we’ll see today is perhaps the most bizarre one if not the most bizarre Terra Squid of all. A descendant of the Scamper Squid is the first fully fuzzy Tera Squid.
In lifestyle, they're similar to their ancestor as nocturnal insectivores. But it is their anatomy that makes this Serama Chicken-sized squid so unique even among the unique Tera Squids.
A layer of fur covers the body except around the beak where the nostrils have moved to. This fur like in their ancestor is formed by a barb surrounded by scutes of Chitin and proteins the same material that forums their skeleton.
Up close the hair resembles thousands of overlapping insect wings. they're rather thin and translucent and reflect colors in their body. This gives the fur a greenish-blue appearance as it reflects the Hemocyanin found throughout their internal anatomy.
The flooding of blue-green pigments has also led to Furred Squid joining the Squibbion as the only Tera Squid outside of freak mutations that can have naturally blue eyes.
With the use of their chromatophores, Furred Squid create wave patterns on their fur used in courtship displays along with dancing on their back legs and singing although with how far up their nostrils are it comes out higher pitched than others.
Bing Videos go to the section on Kronosaurus.
So just don't get overwhelmed
And you'll make it out, then you'll be just fine
I promise you don't have to worry 'bout a thing
Don't let it break you down, you got me by your side
And when you feel the difference, it'll be night and day
Night and day
Meersqats are desert-dwelling Terra Squid descended from the Sqerboa. Their small animals the size of a ferret this animal is expertly adapted as one of the only Terra Squid that inhabits the desert the jumping legs of its ancestor now carry it across the sand its first two pairs of limbs completely held off the ground now used in digging and foraging and flaps of skin along the first pair of limbs to shed heat.
Well not as extreme as its ancestor the Meersqat still moves by hopping its back limbs bunched together moving them in a bird-like skipping motion well chasing small insects and looking for seeds in the early hours of the morning before the heat of mid-day.
Meersqats are social animals living in groups made of multiple breeding pairs as it makes child rearing and foraging easier with older siblings acting as scouts for Raptorial Blish their most common predators.
Another Terra Squid that lives in dry areas is the Sqangaroo. Descended from the same Sqerboa ancestor as the Meersqat the Sqangaroo kept the hopping locomotion of this earlier forum further specializing on these adaptations.
The tail is long and rigid like a dinosaur. The second pair of limbs is highly reduced and the first is able to fold under the mouth to reduce drag when hopping.
They're more specialized for herbivory than their ancestor feeding on the dry grasses of the central grasslands their bendy pair of first limbs are able to rip grass out and shove it into their beak.
As hopping is a rather specialized lifestyle parental care needs to be strong young will hang onto the mother's back for the first 3 months until they are old enough to keep up with adults having recently evolved from small ancestors their young mature fast making this high parental care worth it for them.
The last Squid Rodent we see today is the Gray Snuffer a massive 500-pound descendant of the Jutter Jaw found nearly throughout the whole world with an adaptable diet that lets them feed on any area's food source.
Another thing that lets them live almost anywhere is their well-protected body. The rooting around of their ancestor has been taken further as some 2 million years ago their ancestor developed hooks along their beak and tentacles to find hidden morsels.
Like the spurs of Vice Mouths, these hooks come from the teeth of their Radula and are impeded in the skin down their first pair of limbs.
Snuffers have taken this even further their skin teeth protrude outward behind their face and down their back forming an Ankylosaur shell of osteoderms along their back keeping them safe from the strikes of most predators.
These well-armored generalists can be found in almost any environment short of true deserts including a place one would never expect to find them.
From one of the summer storms along the Coastal Lowlands, several of snuffers were blown out to sea on mats of floating vegetation along with other stowaways like Arachlobsters and Lungeworms.
By luck, some of these rafts managed to run into the Cryptoland islands where the Snuffers quickly settled into the Blish-dominated ecosystem as the island's only Tera Squid.
With such a global distribution these Squid Rodents are primed for radiation. But it will be their interactions with another one of the Cryptoland Islands stowaways that came with them and one to arrive down the road that they will truly be known for.
Just like fire, burnin' up the way
If I could light the world up for just one day
Watch this madness, colorful charade
No one can be just like me any way
Just like magic, I'll be flyin' free
I'mma disappear when they come for me
I kick that ceiling, what you gonna say?
No one can be just like me anyway
Just like fire, uh