Shingle Shrewv

The Shingle Shrewv has taken to even greater defense. Its spines have developed into flat plates. These plates are laid out in overlapping rows which form a flexible and contiguous armor covering. When damaged each plate can be shed individually and a new plate be grown in its place, reducing the amount of time it must bury itself to accrete its hard structures. Its eye pseudopods have moved to the top of its shell, and protrude through holes in the cap plate of its armor. It will scavenge on dead flora and fauna utilizing its feeding pseudopods to secrete digestive enzymes to dissolve the food item.

Reproduction occurs throughout the year, with new cells being produced following meals. Nuclei are encased into cell membranes from the foot pseudopods and deposited into nearby substrates. Genetic material is transferred between Shingle Shrewvs whenever they come across one another. Through contact via their foot pseudopods, they will transfer nuclei between them. Each nucleus has varying genetic code. When nuclei are swapped between cells, the cell's percentage of nuclei with distinct genetic codes changes, becoming an amalgamation of nuclei with the codes of each donor, and merged codes. Thus the more swapings the Shrewv performs, the more varied its overall genetic composition becomes.

These new Shingle Shrewv will accrete their shingles over the course of a month, until emerging as 1 cm wide young. Following feedings they will bury themselves to accrete their shingles. It can take 4 to 6 months to reach full size, at which point they will only bury themselves to replace damaged shingles. In regions with established populations of Shingle Shrewvs will lead to the substrate being littered with discarded shingles. New Shrewvs tend to bury themselves in contact with these shed shingles so that they can recycle the shed shingles into the material to build their new shingles. The coloration of their shingles is caused by the magnification of impurities in the aragonite utilized to build them due to the recycling of shed shingles.