Tambug

The Tambug split from its ancestor. This small, strange arthrothere has gained articulation of its body and neck through the same developmental pathway that gave its ancestors their tail-like abdomen, making it much more flexible and allowing it to develop repeating sets of defensive spikes. Unlike its close relatives, it is actually an herbivore. It is present in the temperate and polar woodlands, and it consumes much of the purple flora present especially in the undergrowth. Being cold-blooded, it has to hibernate in burrows over the winter.

The Tambug is not large enough to develop a gut as long as that of many Terran herbivores, but it makes up for this with its chewing ability. Like most arthrotheres, it has chitinous teeth inside its mouth attached to a tongue-like pad. The Tambug’s tongue-pad is especially mobile, allowing it to grind flora between its flat molar-like teeth in a back-and-forth motion. This allows it to grind whatever it has in its mouth into an easier-to-digest paste. Though its entire mouth is beaked, the teeth only stop at the front of the lower jaw to leave room for movement. The front of the beak functions as incisors, being used to clip plant matter.

Like its ancestor, the Tambug is not territorial. In fact, it doesn’t even have a defined “territory” anymore. Though it will usually stay within a kilometer of their home, individuals have been known to wander as far as 10 kilometers from their home nest and still make their way back, especially in the colder parts of its range where there are fewer predators. If it cannot reach its burrow in time for winter frost, it will make a new one, “resetting” the center of its “territory”.

The Tambug retains the ability to communicate with others of its kind using its antennae. They now have a three-lobed shape, though the lobes cannot quite move independently and are still connected at the base. The off-white color on the “inside” of the flap makes it more conspicuous, and it will now signal danger by flapping it rapidly. Though it does not live in groups, this instinct came about for indirectly protecting juveniles—though it still lacks parental care, juveniles do live close to their mother early in their lives, and therefore the signal increases both their and their mother’s reproductive success.

The Tambug has made one other notable change. It is no longer ovoviviparous; instead, it can lay its eggs again. The eggs have a tough cuticle derived from the egg membrane. The eggs are buried underground, usually near the mother’s burrow, depending on underground moisture to avoid drying out. The eggs do not contain a permanent store of fluid, instead replenishing it by soaking up groundwater through osmosis—they are actually rather salty specifically for that purpose. This change reduces the strain on the mother, as she does not have to carry the eggs to term, and it allows her to mate again much sooner. Tambugs breed throughout the spring and summer as long as it is sufficiently moist for their eggs. The young hatch as miniature adults and dig to the surface to begin their lives.