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Description

For context: www.deviantart.com/dimetropus/…

Cold Earth website

Perhaps counterintuitively, ectothermic animals tended to do better than similarly-sized endothermic ones. Without the need to eat constantly to stay warm, as well as being able to fast for weeks or months on end when food is scarce, cold-blooded animals have weathered through the extinction fairly well, relatively speaking. An example of reptilian diversification in the temperate North American forests is the cherrytail garter.

Cherrytail garters are typical-looking garter snakes - until they get defensive. When threatened, the snake will lift its tail and show off the red scales underneath as a warning. If further pressed, it will spray a noxious scent from its cloaca, smelling overwhelmingly musky and rotten. This defense works very well against some predators, such as mammals, but not so much against others, such as raptors, which the snake has had to cope with. However, young cherrytail garters have found an unorthodox use for it: To attract prey, not repel predators.

That is only a short summary. The art appears with a description here.

Any feedback at all is much appreciated!

Description

For context: www.deviantart.com/dimetropus/…

Cold Earth website

Perhaps counterintuitively, ectothermic animals tended to do better than similarly-sized endothermic ones. Without the need to eat constantly to stay warm, as well as being able to fast for weeks or months on end when food is scarce, cold-blooded animals have weathered through the extinction fairly well, relatively speaking. An example of reptilian diversification in the temperate North American forests is the cherrytail garter.

Cherrytail garters are typical-looking garter snakes - until they get defensive. When threatened, the snake will lift its tail and show off the red scales underneath as a warning. If further pressed, it will spray a noxious scent from its cloaca, smelling overwhelmingly musky and rotten. This defense works very well against some predators, such as mammals, but not so much against others, such as raptors, which the snake has had to cope with. However, young cherrytail garters have found an unorthodox use for it: To attract prey, not repel predators.

That is only a short summary. The art appears with a description here.

Any feedback at all is much appreciated!