Rainbowtail



Rainbowtail (Carpotherapodus iris)

Ancestor: Signaltail

Habitat: Drake Chaparral, Drake Temperate Woodland, Drake Plains, Soma Temperate Beach

Size: 2 m Long

Diet: (adult): Carnivore (Desert Gossalizard, Pinyuk, Lizalagarto, Plains Uktank, Juvenile Sailmail, Uklunk, Gutsy Phlyer, Drake Uktank), Scavenger (larva): Omnivore (Cloudswarmer Larva, Cryobowl Fruit), Scavenger, Filter-feeder (Cryoutines)

Reproduction: Sexual, Two Genders, Frog-like Eggs Laid In Spawning Pools

Week: 26

Gen: 160

The Rainbowtail split from its ancestor. They are the result of some Signaltails wandering into Drake Chaparral in a desperate attempt to escape competition with the Baron Signaltail and find new spawning grounds. While they did escape their competitor, they never found a cave or body of water to replace their lost spawning grounds. Thus, they had to evolve. Rainbowtails have golden scales in order to blend in with the chaparral's golden soil, and have had their spikes evolve into plates to protect them a bit more from the Immense Flunejaw. However, Rainbowtails will avoid Immense Flunejaws. Their muscular structure has changed so they can spend most of their time on two legs rather than four, allowing their arms to carry pieces of prey and other objects. They now live in groups; which normally consist of three mating pairs and their young. However, these groups can grow much larger when food is plentiful, and grow smaller when food is scarce. These groups are not aggressive towards each other unless there is not very much food around. These groups all live in the chaparral, but will venture into the neighboring plains, woodland, and beach to hunt and gather materials to build their spawning pools. However, the Rainbowtail does not venture very far into the woodland in order to decrease their chances of getting lost or running into a Baron Signaltail. Rainbowtails will also avoid Soma Temprate Beach during the summer because of the large numbers of Magnificent Slaesosauri that bask on the beach, which may attack them if they get too close. However, some brave individuals still travel there to gather sand for their adobe spawning pools. They have been known to steal the plant fiber-filled mud of gutsy plyers for their spawning pools, and will kill the phlyer if its nearby.

In order to deal with the loss of their spawning grounds, they have begun to create their own spawning pools. They achieve this by digging a circular pit into the ground that is two meters wide and fifty centimeters at its deepest point. Then they gather clay, silt, sand, and plant fibers from their surroundings. They put the materials into emptied-out cryobowls in order to carry greater volumes of materials. After lining the ditch with this mixture, they wait for the sun to bake the mixture into a slab of adobe. This is to keep water from draining into the soil. This must be done in the summer and fall as the pit would fill with snow in the winter and the spring is their mating season. The mating season occurs during the spring because the constant rains will keep their pool full of water, giving the larva time to grow. the eggs hatch quickly, as the pool will slowly evaporate during the summer. The adults will take care of their young, bringing them food in the form of cryobowls filled with fruit, cryoutines, and cloudswarmer larva. These cryobowls are repurposed to carry materials to build new spawning pools (as mentioned before). When the young grow too big for their pools, they will leave the pool and join their parents, which will teach them how to hunt. Most of the time, fully grown Rainbowtails are ousted from their group and will start a new one. because of the high numbers of larva surviving, Rainbowtails will lay fewer eggs.

Rainbowtails communicate through their tail lights, much like their ancestor. But now, their lights have evolved the ability to change color. Combined with the combinations of lights being on and off, they have developed a basic language and are capable of 'speaking' in sentences; with each light and color combination being a word. This has improved their ability to communicate with each other. They mainly use their language to give and receive commands while they hunt or build a spawning pool, but it is also used to 'talk' about everyday things like how they feel and what they are doing.