Short-Necked Shrew

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Short-Necked Shrew
(Cantromimus alpinus)
Main image of Short-Necked Shrew
Species is extant.
Information
CreatorDisgustedorite Other
Week/Generation26/161
HabitatDarwin Alpine, Dixon-Darwin Boreal
Size1.2 meters long
Primary MobilityUnknown
SupportEndoskeleton (Bone)
DietOmnivore (Minikruggs, Silkruggs, Climber Crystalkrugg, Grovecrystal Krugg, Bloodback, Common Fraboo, Neuks, Proto-Uksoar, Robust Rainforest Ukjaw, Leafplate, Hikahoe, River Hikahoe, Barkback, Gnarblunter, Snowplower, Wave Gigarystal, Sheltered Pagoda, Belay Crystalroot, Flattened Gigarystal, Pagoda Crystal, Grovecrystal, Woodland Grovecrystal, Sapshrooms, Supershrooms, Berry Arbourshroom), scavenger
RespirationActive (Lungs)
ThermoregulationEndotherm (Fur)
ReproductionSexual (male and female, live birth, pouch and milk)
Taxonomy
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Superclass
Clade
Class
Subclass
Superorder
Order
Superfamily
Family
Genus
Species
Eukaryota
Carpozoa
Spondylozoa
Anisoscelida
Pentapodes
Soricia (info)
Chaetotheria
Tamia (info)
Neotheria
Xenosoricoidea
Tyrannochoeridae
Cantromimus
Cantromimus alpinus
Ancestor:Descendants:

The Short-Necked Shrew split from its ancestor and became an omnivore. As having multiple eyes didn't make having a neck especially advantageous for looking around, its neck is reduced—allowing for some strange new adaptations. It has developed new muscles connecting its head to its shoulders, greatly increasing its strength. This has made its forelegs slightly less useful for walking, so it has become a facultative biped. However, at the same time, this also ties its forelimb and head strength, so it can also use its forelimbs to help it latch onto prey like an extra pair of jaws.

The short-necked shrew has wider hips than its ancestor. This allows it to give birth to more developed young, though nowhere near the level of a placental mammal; it still spends much of its early life helpless inside its mother's pouch. With the extra development time inside its mother, it has more energy to spend on frivolous features, so it has developed a display structure in the form of a mane running down its back. This causes it to echo the appearance of the prehistoric Cantro, which was also a meat-eating bipedal shrew with a mane. This mane can be raised in a threatening display, telling other shrews or potential predators to back off, and its quality can be used as a health indicator when choosing a mate.

Like a terran grizzly bear, the Short-Necked Shrew is an omnivore. Despite having carnivorous ancestors, it instead prefers to eat a myriad of different types of food, faunal and floral alike. It is incredibly strong, and when it does hunt it is capable of taking on relatively large prey. Like its ancestor, it mostly lives inside burrows of its own creation, though due to the changes to its forelimbs making digging somewhat more difficult it may sometimes prefer to steal burrows.