Tongue Flapper
| Tongue Flapper | ||
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| (Lickilickilickii flappiboi) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | Colddigger Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/167 | |
| Habitat | Fermi Steppe, Fermi Prairie, Fermi Bush, Fermi Plains, Fermi Subpolar Volcanic, Fermi Temperate Volcanic, Fermi Temperate Woodland | |
| Size | 120 cm Long | |
| Primary Mobility | Unknown | |
| Support | Bone (Endoskeleton) | |
| Diet | Herbivore (Parasitic Floats, Marbleflora, Sapshrooms, Kernel Cornucopia (new growth, leaves, and nuts), Lesser Steppespire (new growth, leaves)) | |
| Respiration | Active (Lungs) | |
| Thermoregulation | Mesotherm | |
| Reproduction | Sexual (Two Sexes, Ovoviviparous) | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Kingdom Phylum Superclass Clade Class Order Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Carpozoa Spondylozoa Anisoscelida Tetrapodes Saurochelones (info) Acanthomoi Vexillativestidae Lickilickilickii Lickilickilickii flappiboi | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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The tongue flapper split from its ancestor, the blubber flapper and now has a lifestyle that revolves around trees. It initially arose from members of its ancestors species seeking out food sources to avoid intraspecies competition, settling on the lower leaves and small Flora growing on the branches and trunks of the trees of Fermi. This proved to be successful, as other blubber flappers pursued more ground-based food sources, while this population was able to monopolize on their niche.
The change in lifestyle resulted in strong selection for individuals that had longer faces and longer tongues, longer limbs and longer bodies. Due to this they quickly doubled in size. They're more capable at supporting themselves on their hind limbs, and are even able to jump from their hind legs in order to reach higher food sources. They kept the wings that covered their ancestors body, it actually now utilize them as additional thrust during their jumping. Though most of the wings remain small seven of them on the torso have become larger, acting as the main sources of supportive thrust. The legs remain the main source of power for jumping, however.
These wings mainly rely on the keratin shell, curved, strong yet flexible, as their support. They do have internal connections that tie them to the skeleton, but there's no significant sockets or bone throughout them. The internal connections remain to mainly be muscular and fascia. Due to the shape of the keratin they are capable of flexing when pressure is applied from the outside. This allows them to somewhat fold when lifting away from the body to prepare for flapping. While flapping the shape of the keratin maintains rigidity preventing them from collapsing easily.
A large portion of their diet consists of parasitic floats hanging up from the branches of trees. These alongside their accompanying cryoutine, when consistently eaten, act as a source of hydrogen gas that builds up in their digestive system. Although regularly expelled via flatulence or belching the remainder does slightly decrease their density. This decrease in density only aids them in their jumping. They're long tongue is very helpful when gathering this food, it's able to swipe across branches and is covered in a sticky saliva that easily collects the small balls of Flora to be dragged into their elongated beak. Toward the rear on the sides of the beak are flexible lips that help keep food in the mouth as it is passed rather quickly toward the throat. The tongue is also fantastic for grabbing and pulling the tips of young twigs or just brushing various ball Flora from the trunks of trees.
Their face and wings, and often their feet and legs, are pigmented black in order heat up during the daytime. These dark pigmented cells are coupled with cells that have stacks of proteins that have an inference effect on light that enter them, bouncing them toward the black pigment and increasing potential for heat. This is especially helpful during the cooler seasons. Though during summers populations will reach all the way into the subpolar biomes, these populations will flee north to warmer biomes as the nights grow longer in a migratory manner. Living in forests the populations tend to be protected from wind chill, and the canopy provides natural insulation during the cold seasons, although certainly not enough for them to be out in the open. Communal nests are built from forest floor debris, a combination of pit digging as well as layering of branches provides a large and insulated home for these organisms during their Winters. The groups sharing these nests will huddle together and share in body heat in order to stay warm. Like their ancestor they do have layers of fat which act both as insulation for their core has well as an energy reserve, they spend the warmer seasons building this up by constantly foraging.
Reproduction is fairly similar to their ancestor. The females have a chamber filled with fluid and highly vascularized walls for providing oxygen and nutrients to their young which remain in this chamber for a period of time. Their newborns tend to be rather small and plentiful. Because of their small size there is risk of the newborns being preyed upon by opportunistic small predators. The young are colored gray, slate, black, various dark combinations in order to blend in with the volcanic basalt found throughout the region as well as the black flora forest floor. This coloration tends to be carried into adulthood, although they torso tends to end up leaning more toward a gray or slate rather than black color in maturity.