Rimatergi

Rimatargi is a clade of very large herbivores from one of the southern most continents. Some species can grow up to 20 m long. They are rather conservative in their bauplan, retaining the basic exoskeleton Of their ambulospeculid ancestors. Because a exoskeleton wouldn't be able to support very large animals even under the gravity conditions of Wallace 2, the Rimatergi evolved "unhinged Hox genes" for the lack Of a better term.

From the age of 3 on they begin to grow new body segments,each with a pair Of limbs. These limbs are pillar erect like in early archosaurs and can therefore carry a higher weight without using much muscle strength.

## **Giant Rimatergs**

The Giant herbivorous Rimatergs are some of the biggest of the clade, some can grow to 20 meters in length.Their bodies are filled in large parts with air scas, a way to reduce weight, cool the massive organism and increase lung surface. Instead Of one digestive tracts these animals have two, they are needed to digest the enourmous amounts of low quality food the Rimatergi is constandly shoveling into its central trunk. The length Of the animal helps in this case a lot to break down its food.

Females grow larger and become older than males. At a certain point they stop becoming thicker and only longer. While it significantly slows down they still add new segments long after they reached sexual maturity, resulting in Some very old females having 35 segments, not counting the head.

### **Reproduction**

Rimatergi no longer lay eggs and don't exchange reproductive cells outside their body. Instead the female inserts a hydrophile organ into the males cloaca that in inflates state is used to absorb the sperm that the male produces in a pouch like organ, lined with testicle like glands, commonly known as the plumbus.

The embryos grow up without an eggshell within the body Of the female and are born when reaching (in this case) a length of 40 cm. At this point they only have 6 body segments, including the head.

Juveniles follow for one year their mother, in this time they nearly constandly walk below the female near the growth gap, where new segments are produced. Predigested food "leaks" here out of an opening that is connected to the just forming new part of the intestines. That's why Rimatergi synchronize their growth with their reproductuve cycle.

Before they leave the juveniles develop a coat of poisonous bristles, some species retain these up into adulthood on certain body parts.

#### **Social Behavior**

Rimatergs are not very social and yet they often come together at night to sleep in circular formations, with the biggest/oldest specimens forming the outer-most layers. They aren't flexible enough to form complete circles on their own. When arranged in this way the defensive spines on their flanks point outward, further ensuring to keep predators at bay.

#### **Mouthparts and digestive system**

Rimatergi have no teeth, or analogous structures in their trunk. Instead the lateral trunks rip and cut food items into pieces that are small enough to swallow and grinding plates at the back Of the throat and the stomach grind the "plant" done for digestion. The rest is down by the super long intestines. The older and larger a Rimatergi the less they have to "chew" their food.

### **Squeeze tubes (Straticarex)**

The main food source of the plains Rimaterg is the squeeze tuber, (genus Straticarex) a up to 40 cm high photosynthetic organism that dominates the plaines of the continent. Over many kilometers these "plants" often form colonies that function similar to grasslands. They are very quick growing. Some species produce one photo-disc per day under the right conditions. These segments are photosynthetic units that also produce spores and can form a new adult form when being detached. The most common form of becoming detached is being hit by the cutting bony plates of a rimaterg.

The "plants" often grow so dense that the large plant eaters walk on them since, the bony stems are quite sturdy and only very few animals can crack them open. Because of that the plains are a difficult terrain to walk over Some species have wide, soft feet to rest on many of the plants at once, while others walk on thin stilts that can fit in between the dense growing bone tubes. Rimatergi have not very large feet, but the abundance of them serve a similar purpose as very few, very large feet.

## **Gongwalkers aka as Swamp Rimatergs**

Besides the giant taxa that dominate the plains there are dozens of species that evolved into different niches. But usually they are several meter in length when they reach sexual maturity. The exception is the Gongwalker or swamp rimaterg. These creatures grow only to a length Of 50 cm. They inhabit the swampy areas to the north east of their continent. Their feet are large, broad and hollow which allows them to walk on water. They are nearly immobile in land and instead propell themselves via their lateral trunks and with 4 pairs of specilized legs on the end of their body.

Gongwalkers feast on aqautic vegetation that is otherwise unhealthy for other herbivores due to the high content Of chemicals that give most creatures "alien stomach ache" This makes them a vital part of their ecosystem because they clear waterways that would otherwise be overgrown with these "plants". Because they are so much smaller they often appear in larger groups, forming loose herds Of up to 40 specimens. To further hold predators at bay they store the nasty chemicals of their food in several layers of their tissue. Only very few predators are smart enough to figure out what parts are eatable.