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Description
Terra Incognitia
Moravian Plains:
Terra Incognetia as a land is very separated from the rest of the planet, connected only by multiple strips of land, which are themselves quite thin in design and cover only limited swathes of territory. The southern ones are particularly cold and harsh and thus only hardier species can reach across between the lands. The creatures further north are mostly or entirely endemic depending on the region you go. In this region, multiple groups rare or non-existent elsewhere are dominant, while groups representative of one form in another land are absent or very different. Terra Incognetia is a vast land more than double the size of Africa with a huge range of habitat and ecosystem. Surprisingly, there is little to no desert environment due to the fact that aligned currents around the continent make it quite warm and wet, meaning the north of the continent is covered in a rainforest larger than the Amazon and with equally incredible diversity. The southern forests are temperate and coniferous and have more syncretism with the rest of the planet, including some very strange recent immigrants. The coasts are warm, lush and full of thriving coral reefs full of arthropods and gastropods of all sorts and forms. The deep interior however, holds the second largest savannah on the planet; The Moravian Plains in its east. This vast land contains both plain grassland and a similar habitat with sparse trees and shrubs, similar to the Savannah’s of Earth, though on a larger scale. It is here we shall explore various unusual fauna that inhabit this land, and are different from anything on Earth or elsewhere on this world.

The Moravian plains have hordes of very unusual creatures roaming them. A large herd of strange elongated herbivores graze, accompanied by much lower armoured creatures which seem to act almost in symbiosis with one another. The most common grazers are the fermentotheres (fermentotherium moravius), which belong to a widespread group known as the exapods, named for having 6 feet. Their ancestors are distantly related to other clades like the centaurs and scathebeasts elsewhere, though their thumbs have also developed into a pair of legs, making them effectively hexapedal in design. They come in many forms all around the planet, though the majority are found in Terra Incognetia, and they fill in many niches that ungulates fill on Earth. They are found in almost every habitat here, though on the main continents they tend to fill rare or specialised positions within the ecosystem, though the larger planet size means competition is less intense overall. Fermentotheres form vast herds that can number in the hundreds of thousands, forming a vast and bountiful supply of food for the various predators and scavengers of the region. An adult male measures about 2.2m tall, around 4m in length and weighs up to 600kg, while the females are half that size. Genders also differ in colouring, with the males’ fur being a light shade of brown similar to gold, with a red crest on the head, while the females are a more grassy brown with no crests. They have two spikes on the end of their tail that are used for both signalling and defence, as well as a powerful kick they can use. They are not the only creatures that they live alongside though, as they live alongside the much larger and more intimidating silver rocktripe (chelydermis argentatus), one of the more common rocktripes to roam the plains. They are heavily armoured creatures like their relatives, and feed on different regions of the grass to the fermentotheres, thus not competing. Their anatomy is much more similar to that of the original form, though it is also very different in having compacted into an almost armadillo like way, with thick silver armour plates and red fur covering its body. It retains the 10 limbs and 8 legs of its distant ancestor, with the thumbs having become pincer like as a means of cutting thicker vegetation. It also has a long whip like tail used to intimidate other animals. They are significantly larger than the fermentotheres, measuring about 5m long overall and weighing almost 2 tonnes when fully grown. The teeth in their lower jaws are faced toward one another, giving the appearance of a single jaw like their ancestor, unlike other groups which have evolved two layers of teeth to compensate. The feet have one digit and resemble the hooves of horses, allowing a trotting sound as they scuttle through the grass in search of a meal. They are not totally herbivorous though and will snatch up an insect or small saurodont if they get the chance. Their relationship with the fermentotheres is mutual in regard, as they offer protection for the lankier creatures while the latter lead migrations.

They are not completely safe from other animals though, as they can still face harassment from some of the flying creatures here, particularly draconians which rule the skies of this world. One particularly dangerous one is the Moravian grass-dragon (agrodracon terriblis), a beast resembling many of Earth’s birds of prey. The draconian’s build is nothing short of bizarre for a resident of Earth. Their front limbs, their thumbs have developed 4 quadrilateral opposed fingers which act as talons to grab or maim objects. The 2nd and 4th pair of legs are used for walking on land and are again similar to those of the rockripes and saurodonts in design. The 1st and 3rd pairs however, have greatly extended and sharpened, covered by a thick layer of integument and complex nerve membranes, not that different from the wings of pterosaurs, which they use for flight in a similar way to Earth’s dragonflies, giving them their name. This species is part of the megadraconian clade, which houses many of the more large and unusual species. The grass-dragon measures about 1.6m long, has a 3.7m front and 2.7m back wingspan and weighs in the region of 35kg. The head is very elongated like that of a bird or pterosaur, though one can easily notice the heterodont design still in place after all this time. The incisors are large and used like a beak-tip on their heads, great to grip onto flesh of prey. The canines are smaller, though still larger than the other teeth and work for stabbing and for competition amongst their own kind, while the rest are for shearing flesh, the classic mammalian dentistry. On the ground they are effectively quadrapedal in design, walking on their unidigit legs. The wings are folded upwards to not get in the way of their motion, as they do not have the size advantage their smaller relatives the avidraconians have. A grass-dragon will regularly pick and attack the young of these herbivores, snatching them from above or in some cases, attacking fully grown adults in a swarm to overwhelm them. Often though, they will scavenge from the terrestrial predators that roam here.

The herd march towards a watering whole. Various animals gather around the pool as well. To their left lie a small group of mud-lickers (dolichoglossus leptotachys) who have travelled together to drink from the river. They are a member of a very interesting clade, extremely derived from the other oni groups, and many of them unique to Terra Incognitia, though those elsewhere occupy a very different form. Though the fingers of the original human were genetically manipulated into the limbs of the original oni, the potential genes for the old limbs remained, and in this clade, they awakened and began to determine their evolution. Rather than specialise their fingers and develop fingers-on-fingers if you will, they redeveloped the old limb structures, using limbs to move about in a more standard tetrapod manner. Of course, they only have two limbs and are therefore very different to forms elsewhere, which usually have many sets of limbs. They have very short but thick necks as well, almost indistinguishable from the body and head. As a result, their heads are very large and can contain a lot of food to eat. Without any arms of any kind, they have instead resorted to using their tongues as their main manipulator, using it like a tentacle to gather food, communicate, grab objects and even form elaborate symbols to determine their emotions. The clade they belong to are also unusual in that they have almost no body hair at all, having turned most of their skin into scales. The only hairy areas of their bodies left are the whiskers and those inside their external ears, which somewhat resemble those of horses. Their huge heads and lack of limbs requires that they have a long tail to help them balance, which often leads to them appearing almost tripedal as they try to reach for food. The lower jaws are still well separated from one another. The canines are virtually absent, leaving only the incisors and molars remaining, with each jaw having 2 rows which merge seamlessly similar to the individual lower jaw of a normal tetrapod on Earth. In this group the third eye originally engineered is still vaguely present, but no more so than in a tuatara. This species is an adaptable omnivore with a bias towards vegetation, using its tongue to grab food, its incisors to cut and its molars to chew it down and eat it. it still possesses lips from its ancestors to help protect its teeth, giving it a classic mammalian appearance to it. Various relatives, including herbivorous forms exist in other parts of the continent as well. However, they also have predatory cousins, the rippers, which will be explained in detail soon enough.

By far the most aggressive of the herbivores are the tooth-horns (ceradontus macros), enormous introcephaloids belonging to the group known as ‘kaiju (Japanese for strange beast). They have an incredibly different arrangement from other animals due to their upside down-heads. Literally. The two lower jaws have become the upper jaws and vice versa due to a bizarre ancient mutation. The eyes on the bottom of the creature proved beneficial when looking for plants, and while their vision was more limited, they developed their hearing and smell against predators. This particular species uses enormous teeth as horn like structures for display and defence. These animals have 6 legs and pincer like arms, and are therefore huge. An adult tooth-horn will measure about 12m in length and weigh about 13 tonnes, with the horns reaching up to a metre in length, making highly effective anti-predator weapons. Juveniles are semi-aquatic like hippos and occupy a different niche to their adult forms which are terrestrial low-browsers. Their skin is grey, thick and leathery with scattered hairs all around. On it are tiny parasites, known as lesser pricks (haemophagus minor), which are some of the smaller post-humans, yet the most horrific to behold. A lesser prick is only about 3-4cm long, with the females being larger, and has a very fascinating anatomy toward it. the lower jaws have refused together to allow a more effective bite, possessing four very large canines used to penetrate skin, with the animal’s lips having a thick suction power which allows it to grip onto the item effectively. The limbs are simplistic and are also designed for maximum gripping ability, which is especially effective when dealing with large animals such as the tooth-horns. Their saliva is similar to that of a vampire bat, making sure that blood does not clot while they are feeding. They have surprisingly powerful jumping abilities, allowing them to move between hosts with a good level of efficiency, though inevitably some will be trampled on or taken by predators.

Predators such as the prick-biter (herpelestes spp), thrive on these tiny creatures. They are members of a different draconian clade that has developed a body size more similar to that of birds. Not all species of course are small in size, but many of them are. Prick-biters have a length of 20cm and a 30+23cm wingspan, being quite small. They have mutually beneficial relationships with the large herbivores, picking off parasites from them to make their lives easier, as well as gaining a food source in the process. They feed off not only the pricks but more regular insect-prey as well, thus not being too specialised towards other vertebrate prey. Their thin snouts and brown integument allows them to both camouflage with their huge hosts, and effectively pick off the parasites. The tooth-horns are not their only benefactors of course.

A low shaking sound covers the ground as the lake shows another animal come towards the drinking hole. These are a small herd of gigantic animals known as enormocentaurs (dynamotherium occidentalis) some of the biggest animals on the plains by far. While slightly outsized by their relatives further south, the enormocentaurs are a huge animal. While centaurs are a rare breed in Terra Incognetia, the clades that do exist here are very bizarre compared to their relatives elsewhere, with these ones having become giants. The body is quite compack with pillar like legs which it balances on, with the front pair longer than the back. Behind its sloping back and thick mane of hair lies a tail making up about a third of the animal’s overall length, somewhat resembling a brachiosaur. Above the animals torso, is a secondary torso with two highly muscular arms with four digits, in a radial shape, ideal for tearing down trees and moving large objects. The most bizarre feature of all is the head, which has a spine coming out of it somewhat resembling the dinosaur parasaurolophus superficially, though attached to it is a blue crest that is used for signalling and sexual display, contrasting greatly with its overall orange body and black fur. The animal still has notable heterodonty, with a large pair of canines in the upper jaw that are often used in fighting with other individuals. The lower jaws are even stranger, having large lip extensions that resemble a proboscis on each jaw, somewhat like an elephant’s trunk. They help direct branches and shrubs towards the giant’s mouth, making them effective eating machines. An adult male enormocentaur measures about 22m in length, measures just over 6m at the middle shoulder, can reach about 8m tall overall and can weigh up to 27 tonnes. Females lack the brightly coloured crest on the head, and have smaller dimension around 15-20 tonnes. The females and calves will travel in small herds around the plains and forests, while the bulls are solitary in nature. Predators for these animals are almost non-existent. Almost…

While the mud-lickers may be relatively harmless to many animals, their relatives are another story entirely. Most of Terra Incognetia’s most fearsome predators are the rippers, a clade of ruthless beasts with sharp teeth and terrible jaws. The most common on the plains are the shriekhounds (deinophoneus lupis), pack hunting monsters which roam the plains in search of effective prey. they are sociable animals, somewhat resembling Earth’s raptors of the past. Unlike them, they have no forelimbs or feathers, and instead rely on huge heads and serrated teeth. Their tongues are rough and bumpy, allowing not only a good grip on prey but an ability to maim as well. They also have a venomous bite, which increases the speed in which they can make a kill. Their third eye is particularly pronounced and allows them to monitor the conditions around them with stunning efficiency, helping detect various things their normal eyes couldn't, and thus helping them hunt like dogs. The feet are scarily maniraptoran in appearance, with the four fingers being walked on while the fifth is separate from the others and is opposable, resembling the sickle claw of the raptors of old. Shriekhounds vary considerably in size- the alpha females are the largest, measuring about 4.5m long and weighing about 300kg or more, with recessive females being slightly smaller. The males are sleeker and more agile, measuring 3.5m in length and weighing just over 120kg, and their agility allows them to do a lot hunting. They get their name from their vicious shrieking noises that they make as they hunt, using a high pitched noise to intimidate prey into positions and then cornering them. They seize their chance and begin to ambush the herd, picking around the sides seeing for a way to get to the young. The call of the fermentortheres causes them to fall into place with the rocktripes, forming a defense circle around the young of both species. The hounds look for a gap in the herd eerily while the herbivores panic, with the rocktripes flashing their whip like tails in intimidation at the predators. Of course, individual shriekhounds wouldn’t dare attack an adult of these armoured giants, though their offspring are another story entirely. A baby rocktripe, with its armour not fully formed yet has wondered out of the herd, looking for another place to hide. The mother calls for it, but is unable to leave the herd due to the greater need of them. The hounds begin to close in when something else moves out of the trees, while the mother begins to take her chance and charge.

Out of the bordering forests and scrubs comes a far more intimidating beast than the shriekhounds, one that easily dwarfs them in almost every aspect; the tyrant-ripper (xiphoglossius titaniforms). This beast is much more robust than its relatives, having an enormous head packed with razor sharp teeth. The teeth at the front are shaped like railroad spikes and are perfect for gripping and crushing with power, while the back teeth are good for shearing flesh from the victim quickly. The lack of forelimbs allows the head to be even larger than it would otherwise be, and its powerful build gives it a superficial resemblance to the tyrannosaurs and carcharadontosaurs of Earth. an adult tyrant-ripper will measure about 16m in length and can weigh up to 10 tonnes, easily dwarfing all competition on Terra Incognetia, and this combined with its devastating bite allow it to take on almost any prey it wants. Fortunately, this animal is not interested in feeding, as its stomach is full and is merely thirsty, though it nevertheless terrifies the smaller relatives. Its skin is scaly and bumpy, covered in scutes. They are somewhat like those of a pangolin, though much smaller and finer, resembling lizard scales. They are typically an emerald green colour like those of lizards as well, though at times the males will possess a redder colour during the mating season, as they pump their scales with blood cells to give it a more red colour. Like their relatives, the only points of hair they have on their body are inside their ears, as even the whiskers have now atrophied. Its third eye has also atrophied, and it relies primarily on its sense of smell to find prey, though it also has good vision and decent hearing. The head of the animal makes almost one eighth of its body length, and the jaws contain some devastating power. The tongue of the animal is no mean feat either-it is heavily serrated and works like a spear to inflict deep wounds in its prey at times when its jaws would not properly work, such as against the enormocentaurs. It is also effective to lap up water into its mouth, as it has one of the longest tongues on the planet, bar the marine fauna. Due to its sheer size, it is not a particularly fast mover, though it doesn’t need to be, as it tends to attack the tooth-horns and juvenile enormocentaurs primarily. It also takes carrion as well at times when it is less able to hunt. In between its scales lie many parasites, including the occasional greater prick (haemophagus major) which makes its residence here. They are larger than their relative, measuring about 5.5cm in length, and have much more impressive hairs on their back, and longer legs to travel greater distances more quickly. They may resemble rodents from a distance when on the ground, though their diet is entirely the blood of other animals, particularly mega fauna like this. Like the giant herbivores, the tyrant-ripper will employ the help of prick-biters to clean it and keep its skin in good condition, so that it does not gain infections.

Overall, this ecosystem is a very frightening one to behold, with creatures that are surprisingly familiar, but very alien at the same time. Yet this one is only the tip of our metaphorical iceberg, and the fauna that exist elsewhere have even more of a claim to strangeness. See you then!

Description
Terra Incognitia
Moravian Plains:
Terra Incognetia as a land is very separated from the rest of the planet, connected only by multiple strips of land, which are themselves quite thin in design and cover only limited swathes of territory. The southern ones are particularly cold and harsh and thus only hardier species can reach across between the lands. The creatures further north are mostly or entirely endemic depending on the region you go. In this region, multiple groups rare or non-existent elsewhere are dominant, while groups representative of one form in another land are absent or very different. Terra Incognetia is a vast land more than double the size of Africa with a huge range of habitat and ecosystem. Surprisingly, there is little to no desert environment due to the fact that aligned currents around the continent make it quite warm and wet, meaning the north of the continent is covered in a rainforest larger than the Amazon and with equally incredible diversity. The southern forests are temperate and coniferous and have more syncretism with the rest of the planet, including some very strange recent immigrants. The coasts are warm, lush and full of thriving coral reefs full of arthropods and gastropods of all sorts and forms. The deep interior however, holds the second largest savannah on the planet; The Moravian Plains in its east. This vast land contains both plain grassland and a similar habitat with sparse trees and shrubs, similar to the Savannah’s of Earth, though on a larger scale. It is here we shall explore various unusual fauna that inhabit this land, and are different from anything on Earth or elsewhere on this world.

The Moravian plains have hordes of very unusual creatures roaming them. A large herd of strange elongated herbivores graze, accompanied by much lower armoured creatures which seem to act almost in symbiosis with one another. The most common grazers are the fermentotheres (fermentotherium moravius), which belong to a widespread group known as the exapods, named for having 6 feet. Their ancestors are distantly related to other clades like the centaurs and scathebeasts elsewhere, though their thumbs have also developed into a pair of legs, making them effectively hexapedal in design. They come in many forms all around the planet, though the majority are found in Terra Incognetia, and they fill in many niches that ungulates fill on Earth. They are found in almost every habitat here, though on the main continents they tend to fill rare or specialised positions within the ecosystem, though the larger planet size means competition is less intense overall. Fermentotheres form vast herds that can number in the hundreds of thousands, forming a vast and bountiful supply of food for the various predators and scavengers of the region. An adult male measures about 2.2m tall, around 4m in length and weighs up to 600kg, while the females are half that size. Genders also differ in colouring, with the males’ fur being a light shade of brown similar to gold, with a red crest on the head, while the females are a more grassy brown with no crests. They have two spikes on the end of their tail that are used for both signalling and defence, as well as a powerful kick they can use. They are not the only creatures that they live alongside though, as they live alongside the much larger and more intimidating silver rocktripe (chelydermis argentatus), one of the more common rocktripes to roam the plains. They are heavily armoured creatures like their relatives, and feed on different regions of the grass to the fermentotheres, thus not competing. Their anatomy is much more similar to that of the original form, though it is also very different in having compacted into an almost armadillo like way, with thick silver armour plates and red fur covering its body. It retains the 10 limbs and 8 legs of its distant ancestor, with the thumbs having become pincer like as a means of cutting thicker vegetation. It also has a long whip like tail used to intimidate other animals. They are significantly larger than the fermentotheres, measuring about 5m long overall and weighing almost 2 tonnes when fully grown. The teeth in their lower jaws are faced toward one another, giving the appearance of a single jaw like their ancestor, unlike other groups which have evolved two layers of teeth to compensate. The feet have one digit and resemble the hooves of horses, allowing a trotting sound as they scuttle through the grass in search of a meal. They are not totally herbivorous though and will snatch up an insect or small saurodont if they get the chance. Their relationship with the fermentotheres is mutual in regard, as they offer protection for the lankier creatures while the latter lead migrations.

They are not completely safe from other animals though, as they can still face harassment from some of the flying creatures here, particularly draconians which rule the skies of this world. One particularly dangerous one is the Moravian grass-dragon (agrodracon terriblis), a beast resembling many of Earth’s birds of prey. The draconian’s build is nothing short of bizarre for a resident of Earth. Their front limbs, their thumbs have developed 4 quadrilateral opposed fingers which act as talons to grab or maim objects. The 2nd and 4th pair of legs are used for walking on land and are again similar to those of the rockripes and saurodonts in design. The 1st and 3rd pairs however, have greatly extended and sharpened, covered by a thick layer of integument and complex nerve membranes, not that different from the wings of pterosaurs, which they use for flight in a similar way to Earth’s dragonflies, giving them their name. This species is part of the megadraconian clade, which houses many of the more large and unusual species. The grass-dragon measures about 1.6m long, has a 3.7m front and 2.7m back wingspan and weighs in the region of 35kg. The head is very elongated like that of a bird or pterosaur, though one can easily notice the heterodont design still in place after all this time. The incisors are large and used like a beak-tip on their heads, great to grip onto flesh of prey. The canines are smaller, though still larger than the other teeth and work for stabbing and for competition amongst their own kind, while the rest are for shearing flesh, the classic mammalian dentistry. On the ground they are effectively quadrapedal in design, walking on their unidigit legs. The wings are folded upwards to not get in the way of their motion, as they do not have the size advantage their smaller relatives the avidraconians have. A grass-dragon will regularly pick and attack the young of these herbivores, snatching them from above or in some cases, attacking fully grown adults in a swarm to overwhelm them. Often though, they will scavenge from the terrestrial predators that roam here.

The herd march towards a watering whole. Various animals gather around the pool as well. To their left lie a small group of mud-lickers (dolichoglossus leptotachys) who have travelled together to drink from the river. They are a member of a very interesting clade, extremely derived from the other oni groups, and many of them unique to Terra Incognitia, though those elsewhere occupy a very different form. Though the fingers of the original human were genetically manipulated into the limbs of the original oni, the potential genes for the old limbs remained, and in this clade, they awakened and began to determine their evolution. Rather than specialise their fingers and develop fingers-on-fingers if you will, they redeveloped the old limb structures, using limbs to move about in a more standard tetrapod manner. Of course, they only have two limbs and are therefore very different to forms elsewhere, which usually have many sets of limbs. They have very short but thick necks as well, almost indistinguishable from the body and head. As a result, their heads are very large and can contain a lot of food to eat. Without any arms of any kind, they have instead resorted to using their tongues as their main manipulator, using it like a tentacle to gather food, communicate, grab objects and even form elaborate symbols to determine their emotions. The clade they belong to are also unusual in that they have almost no body hair at all, having turned most of their skin into scales. The only hairy areas of their bodies left are the whiskers and those inside their external ears, which somewhat resemble those of horses. Their huge heads and lack of limbs requires that they have a long tail to help them balance, which often leads to them appearing almost tripedal as they try to reach for food. The lower jaws are still well separated from one another. The canines are virtually absent, leaving only the incisors and molars remaining, with each jaw having 2 rows which merge seamlessly similar to the individual lower jaw of a normal tetrapod on Earth. In this group the third eye originally engineered is still vaguely present, but no more so than in a tuatara. This species is an adaptable omnivore with a bias towards vegetation, using its tongue to grab food, its incisors to cut and its molars to chew it down and eat it. it still possesses lips from its ancestors to help protect its teeth, giving it a classic mammalian appearance to it. Various relatives, including herbivorous forms exist in other parts of the continent as well. However, they also have predatory cousins, the rippers, which will be explained in detail soon enough.

By far the most aggressive of the herbivores are the tooth-horns (ceradontus macros), enormous introcephaloids belonging to the group known as ‘kaiju (Japanese for strange beast). They have an incredibly different arrangement from other animals due to their upside down-heads. Literally. The two lower jaws have become the upper jaws and vice versa due to a bizarre ancient mutation. The eyes on the bottom of the creature proved beneficial when looking for plants, and while their vision was more limited, they developed their hearing and smell against predators. This particular species uses enormous teeth as horn like structures for display and defence. These animals have 6 legs and pincer like arms, and are therefore huge. An adult tooth-horn will measure about 12m in length and weigh about 13 tonnes, with the horns reaching up to a metre in length, making highly effective anti-predator weapons. Juveniles are semi-aquatic like hippos and occupy a different niche to their adult forms which are terrestrial low-browsers. Their skin is grey, thick and leathery with scattered hairs all around. On it are tiny parasites, known as lesser pricks (haemophagus minor), which are some of the smaller post-humans, yet the most horrific to behold. A lesser prick is only about 3-4cm long, with the females being larger, and has a very fascinating anatomy toward it. the lower jaws have refused together to allow a more effective bite, possessing four very large canines used to penetrate skin, with the animal’s lips having a thick suction power which allows it to grip onto the item effectively. The limbs are simplistic and are also designed for maximum gripping ability, which is especially effective when dealing with large animals such as the tooth-horns. Their saliva is similar to that of a vampire bat, making sure that blood does not clot while they are feeding. They have surprisingly powerful jumping abilities, allowing them to move between hosts with a good level of efficiency, though inevitably some will be trampled on or taken by predators.

Predators such as the prick-biter (herpelestes spp), thrive on these tiny creatures. They are members of a different draconian clade that has developed a body size more similar to that of birds. Not all species of course are small in size, but many of them are. Prick-biters have a length of 20cm and a 30+23cm wingspan, being quite small. They have mutually beneficial relationships with the large herbivores, picking off parasites from them to make their lives easier, as well as gaining a food source in the process. They feed off not only the pricks but more regular insect-prey as well, thus not being too specialised towards other vertebrate prey. Their thin snouts and brown integument allows them to both camouflage with their huge hosts, and effectively pick off the parasites. The tooth-horns are not their only benefactors of course.

A low shaking sound covers the ground as the lake shows another animal come towards the drinking hole. These are a small herd of gigantic animals known as enormocentaurs (dynamotherium occidentalis) some of the biggest animals on the plains by far. While slightly outsized by their relatives further south, the enormocentaurs are a huge animal. While centaurs are a rare breed in Terra Incognetia, the clades that do exist here are very bizarre compared to their relatives elsewhere, with these ones having become giants. The body is quite compack with pillar like legs which it balances on, with the front pair longer than the back. Behind its sloping back and thick mane of hair lies a tail making up about a third of the animal’s overall length, somewhat resembling a brachiosaur. Above the animals torso, is a secondary torso with two highly muscular arms with four digits, in a radial shape, ideal for tearing down trees and moving large objects. The most bizarre feature of all is the head, which has a spine coming out of it somewhat resembling the dinosaur parasaurolophus superficially, though attached to it is a blue crest that is used for signalling and sexual display, contrasting greatly with its overall orange body and black fur. The animal still has notable heterodonty, with a large pair of canines in the upper jaw that are often used in fighting with other individuals. The lower jaws are even stranger, having large lip extensions that resemble a proboscis on each jaw, somewhat like an elephant’s trunk. They help direct branches and shrubs towards the giant’s mouth, making them effective eating machines. An adult male enormocentaur measures about 22m in length, measures just over 6m at the middle shoulder, can reach about 8m tall overall and can weigh up to 27 tonnes. Females lack the brightly coloured crest on the head, and have smaller dimension around 15-20 tonnes. The females and calves will travel in small herds around the plains and forests, while the bulls are solitary in nature. Predators for these animals are almost non-existent. Almost…

While the mud-lickers may be relatively harmless to many animals, their relatives are another story entirely. Most of Terra Incognetia’s most fearsome predators are the rippers, a clade of ruthless beasts with sharp teeth and terrible jaws. The most common on the plains are the shriekhounds (deinophoneus lupis), pack hunting monsters which roam the plains in search of effective prey. they are sociable animals, somewhat resembling Earth’s raptors of the past. Unlike them, they have no forelimbs or feathers, and instead rely on huge heads and serrated teeth. Their tongues are rough and bumpy, allowing not only a good grip on prey but an ability to maim as well. They also have a venomous bite, which increases the speed in which they can make a kill. Their third eye is particularly pronounced and allows them to monitor the conditions around them with stunning efficiency, helping detect various things their normal eyes couldn't, and thus helping them hunt like dogs. The feet are scarily maniraptoran in appearance, with the four fingers being walked on while the fifth is separate from the others and is opposable, resembling the sickle claw of the raptors of old. Shriekhounds vary considerably in size- the alpha females are the largest, measuring about 4.5m long and weighing about 300kg or more, with recessive females being slightly smaller. The males are sleeker and more agile, measuring 3.5m in length and weighing just over 120kg, and their agility allows them to do a lot hunting. They get their name from their vicious shrieking noises that they make as they hunt, using a high pitched noise to intimidate prey into positions and then cornering them. They seize their chance and begin to ambush the herd, picking around the sides seeing for a way to get to the young. The call of the fermentortheres causes them to fall into place with the rocktripes, forming a defense circle around the young of both species. The hounds look for a gap in the herd eerily while the herbivores panic, with the rocktripes flashing their whip like tails in intimidation at the predators. Of course, individual shriekhounds wouldn’t dare attack an adult of these armoured giants, though their offspring are another story entirely. A baby rocktripe, with its armour not fully formed yet has wondered out of the herd, looking for another place to hide. The mother calls for it, but is unable to leave the herd due to the greater need of them. The hounds begin to close in when something else moves out of the trees, while the mother begins to take her chance and charge.

Out of the bordering forests and scrubs comes a far more intimidating beast than the shriekhounds, one that easily dwarfs them in almost every aspect; the tyrant-ripper (xiphoglossius titaniforms). This beast is much more robust than its relatives, having an enormous head packed with razor sharp teeth. The teeth at the front are shaped like railroad spikes and are perfect for gripping and crushing with power, while the back teeth are good for shearing flesh from the victim quickly. The lack of forelimbs allows the head to be even larger than it would otherwise be, and its powerful build gives it a superficial resemblance to the tyrannosaurs and carcharadontosaurs of Earth. an adult tyrant-ripper will measure about 16m in length and can weigh up to 10 tonnes, easily dwarfing all competition on Terra Incognetia, and this combined with its devastating bite allow it to take on almost any prey it wants. Fortunately, this animal is not interested in feeding, as its stomach is full and is merely thirsty, though it nevertheless terrifies the smaller relatives. Its skin is scaly and bumpy, covered in scutes. They are somewhat like those of a pangolin, though much smaller and finer, resembling lizard scales. They are typically an emerald green colour like those of lizards as well, though at times the males will possess a redder colour during the mating season, as they pump their scales with blood cells to give it a more red colour. Like their relatives, the only points of hair they have on their body are inside their ears, as even the whiskers have now atrophied. Its third eye has also atrophied, and it relies primarily on its sense of smell to find prey, though it also has good vision and decent hearing. The head of the animal makes almost one eighth of its body length, and the jaws contain some devastating power. The tongue of the animal is no mean feat either-it is heavily serrated and works like a spear to inflict deep wounds in its prey at times when its jaws would not properly work, such as against the enormocentaurs. It is also effective to lap up water into its mouth, as it has one of the longest tongues on the planet, bar the marine fauna. Due to its sheer size, it is not a particularly fast mover, though it doesn’t need to be, as it tends to attack the tooth-horns and juvenile enormocentaurs primarily. It also takes carrion as well at times when it is less able to hunt. In between its scales lie many parasites, including the occasional greater prick (haemophagus major) which makes its residence here. They are larger than their relative, measuring about 5.5cm in length, and have much more impressive hairs on their back, and longer legs to travel greater distances more quickly. They may resemble rodents from a distance when on the ground, though their diet is entirely the blood of other animals, particularly mega fauna like this. Like the giant herbivores, the tyrant-ripper will employ the help of prick-biters to clean it and keep its skin in good condition, so that it does not gain infections.

Overall, this ecosystem is a very frightening one to behold, with creatures that are surprisingly familiar, but very alien at the same time. Yet this one is only the tip of our metaphorical iceberg, and the fauna that exist elsewhere have even more of a claim to strangeness. See you then!