Azuarrow

From Vailnoffia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Azuarrow.png

Untitled-1.jpeg

Taxonomy
Ancestors and Descendants
Ancestor: Hiberfrondo
Descendants: Azild Hexarak Palmarrow Azufern

Creator: Bufforpington

Ancestor: Hiberfrondo

Habitat: West Gemstar Temperate Beach

Size: 10-30 cm Long (larva) .3-1.2 m Tall (adult)

Diet: Scavenger, Weak Photosynthesis (larva) Cannibal (feeds on larva) Scavenger, Detritivore, Photosynthesis (adult)

Reproduction: Sexual, Airborne Gametes





The beaches of West Gemstar Temperate Beach are not a pleasant place to be. After the end-prevailnoffian mass extinction, hardly any living thing can be found- aside from the vast mats of bacterial slime. Washed-up carcasses litter the landscape- yet there seem to be fewer of them compared to the other beaches of vailnoffia.

Then- something unexpected shows up. something is moving- alive.

A maroon-colored, slug-like organism shambles across the beach, dragging itself with its six tentacles. Four of them are positioned around the mouth, and two are located on the first third of its body. Blue, fleshy protrusions extend from the posterior half of the organism. It drags itself to a corpse and starts to tear it apart with its tentacles, dragging the chunks of flesh into its mouth. This strange creature is the larva of the azurarrow.

The result of some hiberfrondos moving south into the now empty temperate beach of west Gemstar, the azurarrow gets its name from the blue, arrow-shaped fronds its adult form possesses. The blue color of its leaves comes from a blue, photosynthetic species of prokaryote that thrives in this relatively barren slimeland- something that would be found in much smaller numbers under normal circumstances. These prokaryotes live endosymbiotically within the cells of the azurarrow's fronds. Its frond-bearing tentacles are far more mobile and flexible, and slowly wave around in the air. If a small carcass washes up next to it, it will snatch it and move it to its mouth. Its fronds are sturdier as means of preventing them from being damaged by said carcasses. It will also eat larva that stray too close to it, though this is rare. Its roots have grown longer and branch more, allowing for greater nutrient and water uptake. However, its most interesting feature is its larval stage. The larva are essentially mobile, premature versions of the adults. This mobility allows them to access more carcasses, and thus, gather more nutrients that will go into their growth. Because they lack water storage tubers, the larva have developed permeable skin, allowing them to breathe unhindered as long as their skin is moist. Fortunately, they rarely stray too far from the swash-zone. Once they reach around 30 centimeters in length, they will dig a hole into the ground and plant their now rotund bodies into the ground. From there their roots will grow longer, and the blue prokaryotes growing in their proto-roots will migrate up into the anterior tentacles' developing fronds. The remaining two tentacles will develop their water storage tubers. Their skin will become tougher and more leathery. after all of these parameters are met, the azuarrow's metamorphosis is complete. Azuarrows will release their airborne gametes in the spring. When two gametes fuse together, they will begin to develop into a larva. This proto-larva will subsist on the bacterial mats until it is large enough to feed on carcasses. By fall, the larva become swollen and fat, and will plant themselves into the ground and metamorphose over the winter. Both metamorphosing and adult azuarrows will insert their tentacles into their mouths and to prevent them (and the prokaryotes) from freezing to death over the winter. However, they do not hibernate as long as their ancestor, as the winters in their habitat are not as harsh their ancestors' polar habitat.