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By 290 MPE, many thorngrazers - once big, homely, hostile animals - have evolved into smaller creatures that can be beautiful, elegant, and even highly intelligent. It has been a transformation few could ever have expected of them before the hothouse.
But there is another genus of thorngrazers found in northern Serinarcta that, though quite small, are among the meanest and crudest of the entire lot. Very near relatives of the savannah thornsaber, and a little more distantly to the eartheater, they are the anklebiters. Their clade nickname embodies their fierce natures that make up for their diminutive sizes: anklebiters are carnivores, like their larger kin. The largest of this genus grows to just over knee high, some 20 inches at the shoulder. Yet they are deadly predators, able to hunt prey larger than themselves with vicious hooked underbites. Lurking in hiding - in deep, shadowed forest undergrowth, or the tall reeds of the endless wetlands - these creatures plod along on short, stubby legs that let them vanish into low cover. Though poor swimmers, bony osteoderms and dense skeletons let them sink in water and run along the bottom, giving them some ability to cross rivers and so dwell in wetter places than many thorngrazers. With barrel-shaped bodies, they appear chubby and almost cute. Don't be fooled - that isn't fat, but muscle. Extremely strong for their size, anklebiters erupt from the vegetation when they've crept close to some hapless passing animal - a unicorn, a trunko, anything it can catch unaware - and they strike at their vulnerable lower regions. Many anklebiters charge and strike the legs of their far bigger prey with a crippling bite; then, when their target has tripped, they make a killing bite, and drag their victim into cover to feed.
But not all are such quick, merciful killers.

Full entry: sites.google.com/site/worldofs…
Serina on Patron (100+ posts ahead) www.patreon.com/sheatherius

Description

By 290 MPE, many thorngrazers - once big, homely, hostile animals - have evolved into smaller creatures that can be beautiful, elegant, and even highly intelligent. It has been a transformation few could ever have expected of them before the hothouse.
But there is another genus of thorngrazers found in northern Serinarcta that, though quite small, are among the meanest and crudest of the entire lot. Very near relatives of the savannah thornsaber, and a little more distantly to the eartheater, they are the anklebiters. Their clade nickname embodies their fierce natures that make up for their diminutive sizes: anklebiters are carnivores, like their larger kin. The largest of this genus grows to just over knee high, some 20 inches at the shoulder. Yet they are deadly predators, able to hunt prey larger than themselves with vicious hooked underbites. Lurking in hiding - in deep, shadowed forest undergrowth, or the tall reeds of the endless wetlands - these creatures plod along on short, stubby legs that let them vanish into low cover. Though poor swimmers, bony osteoderms and dense skeletons let them sink in water and run along the bottom, giving them some ability to cross rivers and so dwell in wetter places than many thorngrazers. With barrel-shaped bodies, they appear chubby and almost cute. Don't be fooled - that isn't fat, but muscle. Extremely strong for their size, anklebiters erupt from the vegetation when they've crept close to some hapless passing animal - a unicorn, a trunko, anything it can catch unaware - and they strike at their vulnerable lower regions. Many anklebiters charge and strike the legs of their far bigger prey with a crippling bite; then, when their target has tripped, they make a killing bite, and drag their victim into cover to feed.
But not all are such quick, merciful killers.

Full entry: sites.google.com/site/worldofs…
Serina on Patron (100+ posts ahead) www.patreon.com/sheatherius