Exhibuita vulgaris – "Common Climber"

## Evolution and classification

Continued continental drift and eroding mountains completely changed weather patterns throughout the history of Wallace II. When one isolated group of genus Saburramhabitatoria suddenly found themselves no longer living in a wasteland but a lush subtropical forest, they had to adapt to survive.

Members of the Celestiphyta clade had been too scarce in the desert for Saburramhabitatoria to consider as a major food source, but in the forest, it suddenly presented a tempting meal opportunity. They didn't move, didn't fight back, and had large amounts of nutritious cartilage, protein, glycoprotein, collagen, circulatory fluids, sugars, fats, minerals and other nutrients. The problem was getting to the loot. In the lower gravity on Wallace II, Celestiphyta routinely grew to 20 meters and could grow to five times that. Their photoreceptors were generally near the top, and they had tough trunks made of bone-like material.

Some of the larger members of Saburramhabitatoria are believed to have supplemented their diet by standing on their hind legs as they leaned against Celestiphyta, pulling down photoreceptors with their front pincers.

## Physical characteristics

Fossils from 120 MYA clearly showed that the class Arborputatoria or "tree trimmer" had separated from Saburramhabitatoria. Selective pressure favored individuals with the longest rear legs, proboscises and heaviest pincers. The most obvious change was in the length of claw carrying forelimbs. They became so long that they became of primary use for locomotion. The rear most limbs lengthened as well but their tails shortened and became lighter as they no longer needed to support the extreme muscles used in leaping.

Transforming from a diet of only meat to one that included large quantities of tough vegetation required considerable adaptation of their digestive system. The plates in their mouths that hold their lower teeth became far longer, evolving into a jaw with two bar linkage, like a vice grip. Their rostrums shortened and broadened, now serving mainly as the anchor point for the powerful rings of muscles that power their massive tooth plates. Using anatomical analysis of dead specimens, scientists estimate their bite force at over 12,000 newtons, approaching that of an Earth crocodile. Their fangs evolved into continuously growing, overlapping and self-sharpening shears resembling bolt cutters, allowing them to bite chop apart the toughest animal bone or celestiphyta trunk. They developed a gizzard and the habit of eating stones to pre-process their food. Their stomach is filled with secretions with a pH balance of 1.5 and their intestines tripled in length.

Yet again, evolutionary pressure have repurposed their proboscises. Relative to the larger size of Arborputatoria, they became shorter. While the length and agility of their proboscises still lets them smell in stereo, they have lost all sensors in the electromagnetic spectrum. As well as taking in air and odors, their proboscises have became central to their temperature regulation system. During high activity such as pursuing prey, their proboscises will fill with blood, ballooning them out. During their respiration, they will draw in outside air through moist passages. This sweat evaporates, efficiently cooling the animal. Most of this sweat is even recycled by their lungs during the respiration cycle.

The ancestral Saburramhabitatorian and Planacorporian system of respiration and circulation was retained without change. The heart of an Arborputatoria has only two chambers, but it has four of them. Each of its two lungs has a heart that pumps unoxygenated blood in and a heart that pumps oxygenated blood out.

Arborputatoria evolved a set of rings along the path of each air sack pushing air into their lungs. The air sacks further serve as a resonation chamber and are further modulated by their proboscises. Because they have two different airways, they can make two completely different notes at once. This gives them calls that are both beautiful and baffling.

The only surviving members of class Arborputatoria are of Exhibuita or "climbers."

The claws on their two middle feet have atrophied and their feet have evolved into powerful three fingered grippers. These grasping feet are used in climbing the bony trunks of the Celestiphyta, hence their genus name of Exhibuita. The already tough osteoderm hide of their Saburramhabitatorian ancestors became even tougher on their belly region, making it easier to avoid injury on thorns while climbing trees.

Males of E vulgaris typically mass approximately 300 to 400 kilograms and stand 130 to 140 centimeters at the shoulder. Females are smaller, at 200 kilograms and one meter at the shoulder. E pygmaeus males mass only 50 kilograms and stand 70 cm at the shoulder while females mass 30 kilograms and stand 50 cm at the shoulder.

Coloration varies widely, generally in a camouflage pattern fitting their home range. Patterns such as stripes and spots are common, and may aid in recognition of their cohorts.

## Life Cycle

All Arborputatoria are ovoviviparous and typically produce one offspring. Males remain for life in the century they were born in. Centuries will "swap" adolescent females when they encounter each other.

Exhibuita mate for life, but there are documented cases of reproduction among non-mated pairs and mating pairs abandoning partners. Females only produce young every three Wallace II years or about four Earth years. Both females and males become reproductively active at about six Wallace II years of age.

Females will commonly live to 70 years and then die of what could be called "old age." Males seldom make it to 50, but generally die while hunting or protecting the century. Like orcas on Earth, females commonly live for thirty or more years after they bear their last young.

## Range

The range of E vulgaris is throughout almost all of Media Insula. While they prefer jungles and forests, they will live on seashores and open savanna. E pygmaeus are restricted to the island of Nuevo Madagascar, immediately East of Media Insula. Evidence suggests that E vulgaris crossed over to the island approximately 12 million years ago when sea levels were lower during an ice age. When climatic conditions returned to the current temperatures, sea levels rose and the population was cut off. With greater competition for food, they reduced in size due to insular dwarfism.

## Behavior

Members of Arborputatoria are highly social animals. Breeding males control their harem of females and their young. Their group is named a Century since they typically number around a hundred members. The lead Alpha male is called a Centurion, after the Roman officer. The Centurion is the center of the troop's attention, making all the decisions, mediating conflicts, determining the movements of the group, leading the others to feeding sites, and taking responsibility for the safety and well-being of the troop. Younger males subordinate to the Centurion, known as Sergeants, serve as backup protection. The Centurion will march the Century from forest to forest with military precision, trimming what they conveniently can before moving on.

Figure D is a representation of the marching order of a century of E vulgaris. The injured and elderly, color coded grey, set the marching speed for the slowest member of the century by taking the point. Adolescent males, color coded blue, flank them. In the center are the reproductive females, color coded pink, and the youth of all ages, color coded yellow. Sargents, color coded green, serve as guards on the outside. Adolescent males follow at the rear. The Centurion, color coded red, follows up at the rear, ensuring that nobody in the century is left behind or strays.

Males have been documented to cooperatively hunting. Once a hunt is successfully concluded, males will distribute meat to their mates and their children. Males also distribute the bone fragments and internals of large Celestiphyta that they have knocked down.

Adult males are active, attentive and affectionate parents. Both females and males will feed and care for an injured or sick member. Cooperative, altruistic behavior is the norm and violent conflict within a Century is rarely observed, although females may fight for social access to males, requiring the Centurion to intervene.

## Competition

The primary predator of Exhibuita vulgaris is Manica Brachium Magna, commonly known as the "Great Grapple-arm." A pack of a dozen grapple arms will attack a Century while it is on the march. They often rush the front of the Century at high speed, where the older and injured members normally set the pace for the rest. While the intended victim is still alive, the Centurion and the Sergeants will protect the group, even at the cost of their own lives. After the victim is dead, the males will hurl large stones at the grapple-arms. While non-exobiologists have claimed this demonstrates grief and rage, scientists believe that the behavior is an evolved instinct to make more costly and less attractive to the grapple-arms.

A state of open warfare exists between members of Quetzal and Exhibuita. This parallels Earth's war between lions and hyenas.

Hunting packs of up to five Q. viatorem females will attack any E. vulgaris they encounter. With their size advantage, Q. viatorem will be victorious over an equal number of E. vulgaris in a melee. Such combat is the subject of many famous works of art, notably "Fight to the death" by Giraudy.

Reports by untrained observers claim E. vulgaris make organized attacks on Q. viatorem. Allegedly E. vulgaris males will lay in wait and ambush Q. viatorem hunting parties. Others have claimed that E. vulgaris will stockpile weapons by natural killing zones. Then a small group will lure Q. viatorem males out of their lairs into the trap. Once in range, E. vulgaris will rain spears, rocks and other missiles down on the Q. viatorem. Then E. vulgaris will flee by pre-planned escape routes. Others report organized attacks by four or more centuries of E. vulgaris. This includes flanking maneuvers, pincer movement, and encirclement. Scientific researches reject reports as unreasonable.

## Food and Foraging

In addition to eating Celestiphyta, they frequently graze at night on hapless Sidobosia. They will harass them until they move and drain what remaining energy they have. Once the Sidobosia is no longer mobile, they will tear the hapless Sidobosian's limbs apart with their pincers and hammer through their outer protection. They are well documented hammering with 50 kg or larger stones to break through the bony trunks of Celestiphyta. In addition to eating the insides of the Celestiphyta, Exhibuita will eat the bone shards. This gives them their characteristic white concrete-like scat as well as providing the minerals for their constantly growing tooth plates.

With an extremely efficient cooling system and their rudimentary tool use, they are deadly pursuit predators. They will drive large prey into exhaustion, harassing them from a safe distance by tossing stones at them. Non-exobiologists have also claimed that they will deliberately stampede herds of prey over a cliff by using similar tactics.

Exhibuita are opportunistic omnivores. They have been documented fishing for fresh water Celernantida as well. Both males and females will catch small Ambulospeculida and toss the bodies in the water. When something swims over for the free meal, they catch it and toss it ashore for consumption.

When a Exgeo Insignispedetes or Needle Worm moves in to attack a Celestiphyta, all the adult males will use a hammer stone to smash through the bone plates on the back of the Needle Worms. When a century encounters a herd of Xanthorinogryphus or Yellow nosed Griffins, females, young and sick or injured males will form a protective camp. The griffins will quickly form a protective circle around their young. The male climbers will pick a griffin that looks older or injured and throw stones or other objects at it, until the griffin breaks rank to flee or charge at them in rage. Once they have a griffin separated from the herd, they will drive it until the griffin drops in exhaustion.

Hunting of Caedicenos gigatus or the poorly named "blood eating giant" by E vulgaris has also been reported. Young males drive these immense fruit eaters to an ambush where the waiting alpha males allegedly hurl stones and sharpened sticks at them.

## Intelligence and Tool Use

The intelligence of Exhibuita is a matter of great controversy among exobiologists. For a Gomphiobian, the brains of E vulgaris are quite large at over 1,000 CC and an encephalization quotient of 3. This high EQ has often been attributed to their diet. Celestiphytavores must utilize a complex, trichromatic, map of visual space to locate and pick the best photoreceptor parts, and are able to provide for the high energetic demands of increased brain mass. Exhibuita maintain a varied and nutrient rich omnivorous diet. In keeping with the research by Steinhausen et al on high EQ animals on Earth, Exhibuita males maintain a high number of potential sexual partners, delayed sexual maturity, and rare gestations with small litter sizes. They also have the complex social life that is also positively correlated with a high EQ.

Non-exobiologists have reported that E vulgaris will wield long sticks with their pincers and middle legs to beat down edible Celestiphyta that they couldn't reach otherwise. Others have claimed that they will bring harder flint rocks from kilometers away and use the hands on their middle legs to chip a point before hammering celestiphyta with their powerful front pincer arms. All apocryphal reports E vulgaris using a stick with a socket drilled into it and a supply of sharpened bone slivers to hunt Caedicenos gigatus have been dismissed by researchers as irrational.

Some have suggested "dialectal" differences in calls between different populations, but as their calls are composed of two different sounds at once more research is needed before such a radical idea can gain wide acceptance.

## Danger to Man

While initially considered as a harmless omnivore, scientists taking specimens have been pelted with sharpened sticks and large stones. This is not a predation behavior. They will kill humans on sight, even though they are never eaten. Those doing research on Media Insula are advised to look for signs of their distinctive white droppings.