Dunatibia

**Dunatibians** are a clade of celernantids that are alive today.

## Evolution and taxonomy

Dunatibians are ancient and very enigmatic terrestrial celernantids. Genetic evidence suggests they are placed between the ancient flying celeralians and the diverse vexilliamelians. They diverged from the vexilliamelians, some 297 million years ago, in the early Tenerian. Together dunatibians and vexilliamelians share the clade Patelladromea. They seem to share many simillarities with the vexilliamelians, like their fully terrestrial habits (even though some developed it secondarily) and hairy integument in some species, though they still retain more delayed metabolisms, at least generally, simillarly to the primitive flying celeralians, reminiscent of their infancy in trying out their first steps into land-dwelling habits. True dunatibians, however, diverged 201 million years ago in the early Scelusian. It seems these creatures haven't really diverged or diversified over the course of millions of years and it is believed their lineage was the most affected across the extinction events. They only arrived after the Accomodatian, as the world was starting to warm up and more favorable conditions were arising for the coexistence of the various terrestrial groups. The ancestors of the dune roamers became aquatic at some point in time, up until the Compsogene, some 100 million years ago. Some 100 million years ago, as well, the aspirantucurreans, the true natively terrestrial dunatibians, have arrived with the favourable conditions of the early Compsogene, and some have started to develop a faster metabolism, in simillarity to the vexilliamelians. Eventually the aquatic ancestors of the dune roamers regained control over its limited amount of remaining limbs and started to become terrestrial, and grew to massive sizes, enviable by any other terrestrial celernantid.

Just like every celeramontian, the dunatibians were once believed to have been ambulospeculids, up until genetic analysis proved otherwise.

Patelladromea (297-0)

* Dunatibia (201-0)
	+ Dune roamers
	+ Aspirantucurrea (100-0)
		- Aspirantulus
		- Dancing sprinter
* Vexilliamelia (295-0)

## Characteristics

Dunatibians tend to distinguish themselves from vexilliamelians for their more "primitive" look, but actually there's little arrowing differences between them. Both dunatibians and vexilliamelians have members that have either four or six legs. In the case of the dune roamers, the back pair of legs is fused, and as been since its aquatic ancestry, and re-devloped for a secondarily terrestrial way of life. Aspirantucurreans, however, have the basal condition of six limbs. Just like the basal patelladromeans, dunatibians basally have a pronounced "hyoid" bone that is very musculated and has been repurposed as jaws for both derived vexilliamelians and dunatibians. For the dune roamers, the two "hyoids" have worked and moved horizontally, to the point that the rostrum was largely reduced and the large compound eyes migrated to the sides of the hyoids. Eventually the head has rotated 90º when the dune roamers became terrestrial, making the mouth look like it opens vertically. Eventually this meant it would have one eye pointing up and another pointing down. Eventually the down-pointing eye disappeared, and the dune roamers only have one eye. Aspirantucurreans have the typical two compound eyes of their ancestors. The aspirantulus has the typical three proboscis, with its hyoid bones being too small to serve any purpose. The dancing sprinter has a tubular mouth where its blue proboscis poke out, and the tubular mouth is indeed supported by the hyoids. Dunatibian eyes have the particular characteristic of having eyelids that protect the eyes from all sorts of problematic occurances. Dune roamers use them a lot in sandstorms and when burrowing their head. They lack any external armouring, which makes them particularly vulnerable, but also makes them more versatile for the already limited movement some species possess.

Their size is variable. The aspirantucurreans are usually small wanderers, but the dune roamer is a bizarre behemoth, reaching heights of up to 13,3 meters, making these the largest extant terrestrial celernantids in existence.

## Distribution and habitat

The "first wave of terrestrial celernantids" is usually regarded as a cold-avoiding clade, that is, very few creatures tolerate the cold climates, and that served well for the periods when the planet was cold and caused moments for the diversification and expansion of much more tolerable terrestrial clades. Dunatibians, however, have managed to overcome this problem, at least in the case of the Aspirantulus, whose dense coating of filaments gives this creature an advantage in the cold climates of Virtu. Dune roamers are exclusive to the desertic and arid landscapes of Occidentis. The dancing sprinters live in the moist rainforests and open tropical woodlands of Media Insula.

## Diet

The diet of dunatibians is variable. Their simple proboscises prevent them from eating very tough material. Dune roamers large size and hyoid jaws allow the giant to burrow its head deep into the sand in search of food or water, though the dune roamers are carnivores. They are very slow, so they don't go chase after prey, instead catching the slow or dead ones it finds in the arid and unforgiving landscape. Aspirantulus uses its proboscises, instead of licking or grabbing and swallowing food, to suck food like a vaccum cleaner, reaping the remnants of food scraps or small bugs and spores of creatures that live in the cold Virtuan meadows. The dancing sprinter uses its proboscises to lick nectar and sap of polyspeculates.

## Behaviour and sociality

Dunatibians are somewhat social. Male dune roamers engage in headbutting to attract females, and their large red sails indicate particular attraction to them. However, it has been suggested competition between males of this species is just more common because about 60% of the population is made out of male individuals. Dancing sprinters, by far the most energetic and fast of the dunatibians, jump and sprint to disincourage predators to hunt these, deeming them prey too fast and nimble to tackle. Dancing sprinters use their dancing rituals to attract mates, including using their colourful blue sails to create a visual spectacle.

## Reproduction

Dunatibians lay eggs, like almost all celernantids. They will lay their eggs in moist places, and their young will born as semi-aquatic and more larval-like forms. The length of this larval, aquatic phase can vary. Dune roamers dig their nest deep where there's water, and lay their eggs there. The eggs hatch very quickly and the weird larva hatch out, and if there is enough water around they will form a cocoon around themselves until they grow to a considerable stage where they are able to move on land and be properly terrestrial, feeding on their eggshells undergound if neccessary. Aspirantulus and dancing sprinters lay their eggs in bodies of water, and the larvae are also born in the water like tadpoles, until they are old enough and developed enough to pursue a life on land. This water-dependant strategy of reproduction was likely an important factor for the decline of many terrestrial celernantids in the past.