Ornithosmilida

A female and male bi-colored saw-birbs are doing a sort of mating ritual above the water. This was the first ornithosmilid species ever described, and curiously it has a not so common feature among most ornithosmilids, that being very distinctive sexual dimorphism. Art made by Corvid.Lara

### Size

0,14 - 2,4 meters in length / 0,3 - 3,2 meters in wingspan / 2,3 meters tall (max)

### Geographic distribution

Media Insula, Micha, northern and eastern coasts of Auth, Terra Septentrionis, Archa, Prin and northwestern Occidentis (extinct in Virtu)

### Canonicity

Canon

**The Ornithosmilidans** (Ornithosmilida meaning **Bladed Birds**) are a clade of adaptable, and very derived gomphiobians that are largely colorful, capable of flight and have a rather bizarre feeding apparatus. They have a resemblance to earthan flying animals, and share many convergent adaptations, such as furry bodies, membranous wings and beaks, this characteristics make them greatly resemble pterosaurs or birds.

Collectively called as saw-birbs or simply just birbs, they are very numerous on Wallace II having a very big distribution across the planet.

## **Anatomy**

### **Mouth parts**

Ornithosmilids have their three proboscis in a very particular fashion. Two of their proboscis have become "harpoon" like. Being highly extendible and flexible. The middle proboscis almost looks like an tetrapodal jaw, however it still is extendible and helps to move the food item inside the middle opening.

Their three proboscis are highly mobile, and they are able to be extended and contracted rapidly. They manage this by having a very specific adaptation, **a flexible pouch derived from their first limb bones**. Their first set of limbs have become highly reduced, so reduced in fact that they aren't visible at all. They only thing that has been left of them is two boney rods that form the base of the pouch. This pouch at the base of the throat allows them to retract their proboscis, allowing them to hide them when not in use.

### **Gait and movement**

Most ornithosmilids are front limb bipedal, due to the way that their limbs work. Their wings have multiple joints and are heavily muscled. They normally balance their body with their long tails and with their smaller winglets aiding in stability. The winglets themselves have a single joint at the base of the torso, severely limiting their mobility. In most cases these only help the animal to balance or change directions in the air quickly. However some subfamilies of ornithosmilids have changed the anatomy of their winglets to better suit their needs.

These animals use quad launching to launch themselves into the air, they do this with their very muscular arms. This method of launching in the air is highly effective, commonly used on Earth by pterosaurs and bats, This allows the birbs to launch quickly and effectively without having to use another set of limbs to jump into the air.

### **Reproduction and caring of young**

Ornithosmilids as a whole have a sort of **egg-sack,** almost an external womb were they place their soft shelled eggs into a moist environment to develop and grow. This meaty sacks grow around the cloaca of the mother once she has mated. The eggs would slide into the egg-sack were they would develop for the first few weeks.

This method of reproduction has allowed ornithosmilids to live on land, the fleshy egg-sacks lets the eggs develop while still being moist and safe. During the first few weeks of development, the egg-sack remains attached to the mother. During this period the eggs hatch and the multiple young live inside this single meaty sack. Being largely underdeveloped, they are small and not very heavy, letting the mother be able to carry them around and still fly with ease.

Further on in development however, the young grow too large for the mothers to be able to carry them. This leads to the mothers **detaching the egg-sack,** and many species start to do a sort of nest around this single meaty egg. Depending on the species, both mothers and fathers would incubate the egg-sack in the nest. Once the chicks have reached enough development and their yolks have been drained, they will break open the egg-sack, and multiple chicks would come out of this single meaty egg.

The following behavior of the parent varies a lot, with some species having great parental care of their young, caring for them for weeks or months and even teaching their chicks how to fly. However most primitive species only care for their young for a few weeks, with the young leaving their parents even before learning how to fly. The young in this case would go out in groups and live together until they learn to fly instinctively and begin their adult lives.

### **Integument and coloration**

These organisms are largely similar to most wallacian fauna. Their once cartilaginous skeleton has become ossified. This bony endoskeleton lets them be able to support their weight on land. Their skeletons, like birds or pterosaurs, is highly pneumatic, being mostly hollow and with multiple air pockets allowing them to be very light weight. They have mostly replaced their ancestral ossified exoskeleton with a **feathery/furry covering**. The exterior bony exoskeleton has mostly disappeared, with only the “beak” remaining. Likely for thermoregulation, but this adaptation has **largely made them more light weight** which is essential for an organism that needs to fly.

Their feathery covering is very similar to down feathers, with a single follicle having multiple strands. This makes their fur very fluffy and dense. Their feathery coats have the ability to absorb many pigments around their environment, allowing the animals to be very colorful. There is some lineages that have even developed iridescence through structural coloring in their integument. This has allowed such lineages to take their coloring to the "next level" in a sense.

### **Senses and perception**

Their ancestral compound eyes have also changed to become extremely mantis-like. With many tiny lenses that help these animals see with great accuracy. Their color vision has also increased since their ancestral origins, which mostly explains why these animals tend to look so colorful, with color being a big factor on sexual displays, communication, and social bonding. Ornithosmilids are very visual animals, sight being their most important sense. This is probably due to their limited hearing, while they do possess external ears, they depend much more on **scent and sight** to guide them around.

Ornithosmilids have adapted a single opening on the side of throats into nostrils, what once was the space between their first and second limbs. This opening is very sensible to pheromones, and other chemicals. Due to their limited hearing, many ornithosmilids started to use smell as a replacement. Scent glands at the side of their heads are commonly rubbed around to indicate territories, or just to allow individuals to identify one another.

These nostrils go into a set of lungs, that function in a similar, though less complex, set of air sacs that pterosaurs and birds have. This lungs occupy a big part of their torsos, filling up the body with air in a motor like manner. They share their almost automatic way of breathing with birds and pterosaurs, breathing in and out automatically in a very rapid manner. Many ornithosmilids can do **vocalizations through their nostrils**, rapidly exhaling air in and out to create chirps, rumbles, groans, or growling. Nothing as complex as a bird song, but something more similar to alligator growls.

## **Distribution**

Another characteristic of these aliens is that they are largely widespread around Wallace II. Their flying capability likely aiding them on colonizing all over the world. Another advantage they have is that they are generalists and opportunistic. However, these organisms have kept themselves on the more tropical parts of the planet with very few species going towards the poles. There are species on more polar areas, however diversity of ornithosmilid species is greater on the tropics. There are many species of ornithosmilids, more than 20 formally described and many more sightings and descriptions of species yet to be described around the world.

As you can probably see by the map at the right side, ornithosmilids haven't been able to be very diverse on the Occidentis landmass, the landmass towards the west. This strange lack of species there is almost a sort of mystery. Though it is likely that there isnt many species on that part of the globe due to competitions with other fliers and it simply being largely isolated.

Some species have gotten to Occidentis however, its plausible that in the coming years more ornithsmilid species will be able to colonize the western continent.

## **Families**

There are four currently known extant families of ornithosmilids:

* Protosmilidae (Saw-birbs and kin)
* Ambulopteridae (leg-birbs and kin)
* Nychoschelidae (sickle-wings and kin)
* Xenophoenicidae (Dappingos and kin)

This four subfamilies will be summarized in this article but each of them have their own articles if you wish to know more about each subfamily.

### **Protosmilidae**

**Protosmilidae** meaning "primitive fang", commonly known collectively as saw-birbs, this is the branch that diverged the earliest from the common ancestor.

They retain the most basal traits of all ornithosmilid subfamilies. However, this doesnt mean they are less diverse. On the contrary they are some of the most diverse or all families.

Protosmilids can be divided into three subfamilies:

* Ornithosmilinae (common saw-birbs)
* Pictatrichinae (Ibisvans and kin)
* Lumenspeculinae (skywatchers and kin)

### **Ambulopteridae**

**Ambulopteridae** meaning "walking wing", the next family to diverge from the common ancestor. These birbs have become secondarily terrestrial, heavily adapted to live on land. They all live in the Micha archipelago, all the species living along the multiple islands. A very diverse grouping, multiple sightings of this animals have happened. However many of the sighted animals havent been fully described, only six species have been fully described, all being highly derived.

Currently there are two subfamilies of ambulopterids:

* Macroaurinae (Vernids)
* Microaurinae (ornilopes and kin)

### **Nychoscehlidae**

**Nychoschelidae** meaning "clawed limb", this family seems to have diverged very recently. Birbs that are mostly flying predators, they have adapted their winglets to have a single large claw. This claws on their winglets have allowed the animals to be very effective predators, as well as making them very competent walkers and climbers, trading their front limb bipedalism for what is essentially a hexapedal gait.

There is currently three subfamilies of nychoschelids:

* Nychopterinae (common sickle-wings)
* Pteronoxinae (night watchers)
* Camptornisinae (sickle-swifts and kin)

### **Xenophoenicidae**

**Xenophoenicidae** meaning "alien flamingo", probably the family that diverged the most recently, the dappingo hoppers, or just dappingos are a group of flamingo like filter feeding ornithosmilids. They have largely modified their winglets, now being completely separated from the main wing, the winglets now are situated on the back of the animals, this arrangement has made them far more bipedal and agile on their feet, and the separated winglets allow them to be very maneuverable in the air.

Dappingos have also changed their side proboscis to be able to filter feed, and their middle proboscis has become a sort of scraper to scrape the organisms they have filtered from the water.

Currently there's two subfamilies of very closely related xenophoenicids:

* Endurarostrinae (mayor dappingos)
* Longirostrinae (dappingo hoppers)

## **Sightings and descriptions**

*This section is of depictions of multiple saw birb species from many different artists.*

* Multiple Dappingo drawings, Mostly depicting the species Aviacimax magnus, by the artist **Ichthiusrex**. Also mutlple sketches of relatives, many of which arent well known, and a "welcome to wallace II" badge depicting a purple saw-birb.

* A saw-birb sketch and multiple photos of a saw-birb sculpture, all by the artist **Dukecoffee.** The sketch shows a saw-birb with a greatly exaggerated crest, possibly a species currently not well known. The sculpture seems to depict a generic ornithosmilid.

* Multiple drawings showcasing multiple species of Nychoschelid ornithosmilids, by the artist **Nobleferret.** Many depicting the genus Leptodon, one drawing showing the genus Velocipterix, two other drawings showcasing a diseased Leptodon pachypteryx, an small nightwatcher, a predatory fishing sicklwing and even a woodpecker like sicklewing.

* Multiple drawings of ambulopterid ornithosmilids, by the artist **sly bearded vulture**. They mostly depict currently not well known species, a large individual known as "big bertha", and a hypothetical gigantic flying ornithosmilid.

* Multiple legbirb drawings, by the artist **Oceansky**. They depict a regular ornilope, a extreme heat adapted legbirb known as the "pyrochicken", and a environmental food web featuring a type of molebirb.

* A group of pictatrichine Protosmilids, collectively known as spoilfowl. They were drawn by the artist **Xand**.

    *“The common spoilfowl (tetraospeculus montanus) is an omnivorous grouse-like ornithosmilid of the family Protosmilidae. It lives on the tundras and mountains of tenebris, grazing upon low lying plants and occasionally dining upon small terrestrial dispeculates and carrion. There is clear sexual dimorphism*

between males and females: The tail fin on the male is twice than it is on the
females, bearing a mix of bright green, purple and blue. The male spoilfowl also have greenish plumage on their heads and a similar colour on the other
wing pairs. They are polygamous and the males have an annual lek.

*The display consists of lowering the head against the ground, but not sticking the beak directly in the ground, rather resting the lower “jaw” (proboscis) against the ground, thus still allowing the spoilfowl to look out for danger. Then the tail raised up high, gets moved from side to side at varying paces. At first slowly, the tail wags slowly, but then nearing the climax of the display, it gets quicker until the display ends. It’s display involves sound as well. At first it makes slow booming calls, and repeats the process until it is exhausted. At which point the display ends. The longer the male spoilfowl can maintain the display, the more appealing he is to the females. The displays, at the longest, can last for about 30 minutes.*

*The terminology of the spoilfowl is like that of an earthly*
fowl, the males are called cocks, the females hens and the juveniles are called chicks.”

* -Xand talking about the common spoilfowl (Tetraospeculus montanus).

    *"The large tail structure is only found in males. In females, they have a far less elaborate fan arrangement, being more reminiscent of other more generalized members.*

*Sexual Dimorphism has been taken further than the rest of it's distant kin. Adults aren't good fliers, being able to fly for short distances only (flight is arduous for males, in particular). Juveniles are far more aerially adept, with longer wings in proportion to their bodies. It's back wings have evolved to take up more weight, and so has the primary wing pair.*

*The spoilfowl's middle wing pair is vestigial. It lives on the southern archipelago of Media Insula, with genetic exchange between populations due to the juveniles flying far from their original breeding sites."*

* -Xand talking about the Tyrant spoilfowl (Pseudopavus magnus).

* A Terra septentrionis tern like fisher birb, made by the artist **Moth** also known as **Addictedtocoffee**.

* A Green spectacled saw-birb and a jumper, drawn by the artist **Poophead27**.

* jaxdaxhax`s spectacular blade birb, a protosmilid species drawn by the artist **Jaxdaxhax.**