Venenumaxima

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

## Evolution and taxonomy

Venenumaximans are a sister clade to oseodontids, together forming the Pedescephalia clade. The pedescephalians originated 201 million years ago in the early Scelusian, when the world was starting to warm up again and create favourable conditions for terrestrial celernantids to return to their land-dwelling domain. Pedescephalians are different from other more basal terrestrial celernantids, like oculians, brevralexians, sporafiliians and patellajulians, for having the capacity of laying eggs whose babies hatch capable of some form of air-breathing. Oseodontids fully lay their eggs outside of the water, in a protective pouch, where the babies drink a milk-like substance to keep themselves hydrated. In contrast, venenumaximans are more varied in that response, with some species laying eggs on the water, though their aquatic young can facultatively breath air. Others lay their eggs inside polyspeculates, or they lay their eggs in moist surfaces, with the young fully capable of air-breathing and walking later. The first venenumaximans originated in the Scelusian 176 million years ago, as bug-like creatures. They split into two groups then, that originated in the extant Celermaxima and the Pedescultroidea. The celermaximans originated in the late Scelusian 151 million years ago, as small burrowing bug-like creatures. Eventually, in the Variagene, the venenunguians originated, 126 million years ago, characterized for having the two lateral proboscises no longer protruding inside of the oral cavity, being instead placed outside of it. Pedescultroids, on the other hand, are much more primitive looking, and, unlike celermaximans, they lay their eggs in the water. They originated 89 million years ago in the Compsogene. Eventually, one branch of pedescultroids, the kounoupidrakoideans, originated as bug-like creatures living in the tropical regions of Media Insula. Kounoupidrakoideans are a fairly recent clade, originating in the Recensgene, 44 million years ago.

Just like every celeramontian, the venenumaximans have historically been classified as ambulospeculids, until genetic evidence confirmed they were celernantids.

Pedescephalia (201-0)

* Oseodontida (134-0)
* Venenumaxima (176-0)
	+ Celermaxima (151-0)
		- Celernantida maxima
		- Venenunguia (126-0)
			* Veleroviditiae
			* Venenunguis
	+ Pedescultroidea (89-0)
		- Pedescultro
		- Kounoupidrakoidea (44-0)
			* Drepanopod
			* Kounoúpi dráko

## Characteristics

Venenumaximans have many characteristics reminiscent of the basal viridimaximans, specially its bug-like look. Every species has its fair share of body armour. Celernantida maxima is very armored across most of its body. Pedescultroids have mostly dorsal armor that can be divided from one to seven dorsal segments, with no particular taxonomical connection to made with these. The exception where the number of dorsal armor is fundamental to a clade's classification can be seen in venenunguians, which all possess four dorsal segments, very evidenced in veleroviditians and their diverse extinct relatives but also in the venenunguis, albeit less noticeable, due to their small and vestigial nature, composed by a group of small not very tough rings held together in the body. The eye structure of venenumaximans is variable. In the pedescultroideans they are traditional compound eyes, but they get weird in celermaximans. Celernantida maxima has the two compound eyes fused in one large orb that has a 300º field of vision. Meanwhile the venenunguians have it even weirder, specially the veleroviditians. They have a pair of simple eyes, each laying on each lateral proboscis. This is actually not new. The basal dispeculates are known to have simple "eyes" in their lateral proboscis that distinguish light and darkness, which allow the proboscis to locate simple stuff that the creature itself isn't seeing or maybe even detect nearby threats. Many advanced clades have lost them, specially as their proboscis have become more and more derived. However in venenumaximans they have been retained, and veleroviditians likely have them the most advanced. Predatory veleroviditians use them specifically to aim the proboscis at their prey with precision. All venenumaximans have eight limbs, however they might use them in varied ways. Celernantida maxima is usually hexapodal, with its frontal pairs of limbs being held like a scythe. Simillarly, the frontal pair of limbs of venenunguis is not used for locomotion and is instead used to perform various functions, like navigating, attracting mates, grab itself to objects, and hunt. Their frontal legs are used to immobilize small prey but they also inject venom, to kill larger prey. Venom is a common trait among pedescultroideans, as some oseodontids and venenumaximans use venom as a hunting strategy, while some others do not. Veleroviditians have the weirdest form of locomotion. Their frontal pair of limbs are the ones that do the walking, and they are made of a very long fibrous and flexible nail that bends and allows the creature to move at fast speeds, however, it has troubles slowing down. The remaining six limbs are held off the ground and are too small. Intriguing method of locomotion, that granted these creatures a lineage of success in the last tens of millions of years, until entering into decline and becoming restricted to two extant species. Pedescultro are very tall creatures that live in mountains and walk on the tips of their frontal and last pair of legs. Their two middle pairs of legs are usually held off the ground and might help on orientation in rougher terrain. However the middle pairs of legs are usually much more used as knife-like weapons, kept sharp with little use, and useful to keep predators away. Kounoupi drako has also a diverse use of its legs. Aquatic babies have a membrane spreading across its legs, used to swim in the water. Eventually adults shrink their frontal pair of legs, and the second and fourth pair are used to walk, loosing their membrane in those legs. The third pair of legs, though, still keeps a membrane, forming a pair of wings. Kounoupi drako are not true fliers, they instead glide around the trees and from creature to creature. Their proboscises are also very derived. Pedescultroideans have them more simple. Pedescultro have simple proboscis. Drepanopods have a central proboscis that feeds and the other two are pointy and inject venom on their prey. Kounoupi drako have a central pointy proboscis that absorbs the blood of its victims, blood that is made out of wounds performed by their lateral proboscis with spiky and rough edges to scrape out the skin. The proboscis of the celermaximans are even weirder. Celernantida maxima have very tiny proboscis with two little branches each. They eat small portions of the food they collect. Meanwhile venenunguians are weirder. Venenunguis has one central proboscis harbored inside a wide keratinous and sharp tube that burrows deep inside its prey's flesh. The lateral proboscis are very diminished and are held very back outside and behind the skull and serve no purpose in feeding. Veleroviditians, on the other end, have proved to be very weird in their position of the proboscis. They have elongated their "neck" allowing a larger area for the harbouring of a large "digestive-respiratory" system. This means, a large capilary surface that allows the central proboscis to have big connections with the developed unified lungs that pedescephalians are known to have. This both allowed veleroviditians to evolve the most efficient respiratory system for terrestrial celeramontians, but also allowed the lateral proboscis to migrate much further and under the body, to the point they no longer serve any purpose in feeding. Their channels are attached to the lungs. The air coming from the lungs is able to create enough pressure ro project a strong armored piece that has evolved inside the lateral proboscis. This armored projectile is used both in predatory and herbivorous veleroviditians to, respectively, hunt prey and break tough plant material. These projectiles are known to extend outside of the relaxed proboscis orifice up to a meter away. The central proboscis is located in the skull. The small central proboscis has two armored branches. In Celerocolidas, a creative form of "jaw" was formed, with the ossification of the under part of the proboscis making the lower part of a beak, and the upper part of the beak is then an extension of the rostrum.

The size of the venenumaximans is very variable. Absconditculdae, the smallest veleroviditian, is also one of the smallest venenumaximans, with around one meter in length in the smallest average individuals. Celerocolidas is a much larger veleroviditian, with 2-3 meters long and 1,5-2,5 meters tall. Celernantida maxima is a very widely distributed (likely wastebasket) species, and their sizes are variable. The largest can reach a rare height of 3 meters and a length of 5 meters. Maybe also one of the largest, if not the largest, is the pedescultro, at five meters tall and 4,5 meters long.

## Distribution and habitat

Venenumaximans are likely the most diverse and well spread of terrestrial patellajulians, being found in every major continent, including even the isolated island of Prin. Most of its wide distribution stems from the Celernantida maxima, whose unique and adaptable numbers and colonial lifestyle makes them versatile and abundant in many environments, where competition is unlikely to hit them. They are found in Occidentis, Media Insula, Auth, Terra Septentrionis and Prin, being the only venenumaximans present in the last three mentioned landmasses. In Occidentis, the pedescultro inhabits the southwestern mountain ranges, where their long legs allow them to have versatile movements in the rough terrain. Media Insula, by far, as the most diversity, going into accordance with its fame for having the most diversity in terrestrial celernantids. The two extant veleroviditians are found in northern Media Insula, in the Thron subcontinent. Drepanopods and kounoupi drako are also common in the tropical regions of the continent. The cold conditions of Virtu prevent the harbouring of many terrestrial celernantids, however, the venenunguis lives in an isolated near temperate region of Virtu.

## Diet

A large portion of the venenumaximans is carnivorous. Celernantida maxima hunts for small dispeculates, that it can shred with its scythe-like limbs but also that it can feed on properly with their small mouths. They also prey on small ambulant polyspeculates, like sidobosians when the opportunity arises. Venenunguis are carnivores as well. They live in a symbiotic relationship with a telaephytan, a polyspeculate, that creates silk-like strings that stick any creature that comes into contact with. Venenunguis as a specific property in its skin and armor that prevents it from getting stuck. The creatures that get stuck, like xenopedans, if they are small enough, are catched by the venenunguis with its frontal legs, however, if the prey is a bit too large, the venenunguis will inject venom, through its frontal legs. The venenunguis will keep the polyspeculate free from parasites, completing the symbiotic cicle. The two species of veleroviditians, the absconditculdaeans and the celerocolidas are, respectively, carnivores and herbivores. They both use their projectiles to hunt prey or break through plant material to feed. Some extinct ones even used saw-like projectiles, presumably to cut their food. Pedescultro is an herbivore. Its proboscises are very simple and uses all of them to feed, specially feeding on soft polyspeculates as it has little chewing surfaces for the consumption of hard vegetation. Drepanopods and kounoupi drako are also carnivores. Drepanopods use their lateral proboscis to inject venom into their prey, in fact they actively hunt kounoupi drako. Kounoupi drako is more of a sanguivore as an adult, gliding to the back of big dispeculates and scraping its skin using their lateral proboscis and later absorbing the blood and the fluids. Young aquatic kounoupi drako, instead, filter feed, using their central and hairy proboscis to feed on the underwater plankton.

## Behaviour and sociality

In general, venenumaximans are solitary, with exceptions. By far the most derived in terms of sociality is the Celernantida maxima, that lives in large colonies, that might vary with the population, habitat and size of the individuals. The largest a colony can get is up to 100 000 individuals, which is mind blowing, when you compare the maximum size these creatures can get. Of course, these record numbers are rare, and may be instead many colonies that have gathered together in one communal grouping. They live in eusocial colonies. They live in various different habitats and usually hide inside burrows. In arid regions, like deserts, they tend to burrow under the sand, and make it a perfectly moist place to hide themselves and their eggs. In the forests, they instead procure making burrow like structures inside the trunks of large bone trees, where each individual will spend the hours where it is not active. Venenunguis are solitary, each defending its telaephytan. They only leave the company of this polyspeculate to find a mate. Veleroviditians are also solitary and defend their piece of territory. They mark their territory with scent-sensitive feather-like glands at the end of their tail, that is both used to detect scent and also to secrete a scent-filled mucus, that marks the territory. In the mating season males use this to find females. Often, when males clash together for the rights to mate, the fights can be brutal, and even lead to death. The winner will eventually gain the right to mate. Pedescultroids are all solitary, only gathering for mating season. Male pedescultroids may fight for their females, usually with headbutting. Pedescultro does this. Male drepanopods have a paralel row of three spikes on their forehead that attract females and may also be used for fight against rivals. Kounoupi drako goes one step further, with a perpendicular row of spikes on the forehead, two small horns and one big at the center, used for intraspecific combat.

## Reproduction

In contrast to oseodontids, veneneumaximans do not always lay their eggs out of the water. While oseodontids lay their eggs in a pouch, venenumaximans do not. Oseodontids and venenumaximans, as pedescephalians, are known for having an internal unified lung, however, much more evolved in oseophatethontians and in some venenumaximans, like the veleroviditians, which take it one step further. Thisn unified lung likely came as a first step to allow the pedescephalians to become crescently more independent from being born in the water and be able of air-breathing. However the basal venenumaximans still require to breath underwater, but they are able to breath atmospherical air early in its aquatic stage, already. Pedescultroids, the less derived venenumaximans, lay from 10-50 eggs in water bodies and abandon their offspring, as parental care is far more expensive for them. There they will feed on the food that exists in the water, and will be equiped with atrophied gills to breath underwater and the internal lung to slowly breath atmospherical air while still very early in their aquatic stage. They pass through a series of metamorphosis to pass from its aquatic stage to the terrestrial stage. The celermaximans eventually found novel ways of overcoming this problem. Unlike pedescultroids, the celermaximans are not born as larvae, instead they look like smaller versions of their parents. They are also parental caring at some extent. Celernantida maxima manages its large numbers due to its very thin ovipositor attacked to a large abdominal chamber that stores dozens of eggs. This way the colony is able to maintain its numbers. Also to help is the fact that Celernantida maxima have just "one" sex. This is an informal way of saying they are hermaphrodite, though they are not exactly like Earth's hermaphrodite animals, and their sexuality is much more complex to be properly explained. Any individual can mate with another individual, with one laying eggs that are then fertilized by the other individual. The eggs are fertilized upon mating, a characteristic that does not occur in other venenumaximans, a characteristic retained with early celernantids. They eventually lay their eggs in moist burrows inside polyspeculates or under the sand. Eventually the eggs will be protected by the general presence of the colony. Venenunguians only lay one egg, though. The mating pair will keep an eye on the egg until it hatches. Once it does, one of the parents will leave and the other will stay to take care of the young, which will eventually grow until maturity, at that time it will be driven away by the parental figure. Venenunguis lays one egg in the moist areas of the telaephytan. As the baby venenunguis hatches, just like the celernantida maxima, will be dependant on the general moisture to keep itself internally oxygenated. Veleroviditians have overcomed this problem with the evolution of a much more complex respiratory system that grants the baby with full air-breathing abbilities right after birth, however the egg still requires to be laid in a relatively moist surface.