Sporafiliia

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

## Evolution and taxonomy

Sporafiliians are a group of terrestrial celernantids, and the basalmost of the Viridimaxima clade, the sister clade to the much older Patellajulia clade. The first viridimaximans evolved 276 million years ago, in the mid Tenerian, diverging into what would become the sporafiliians and a larger clade, the Oculexia. Sporafiliians are pretty basal looking, and the modern sporafiliians have diverged from each other 207 million years ago at the very end of the Accomodatian, after the planet warmed up again, creating favourable conditions for the celernantids to rise again. However, at the time, sporafiliians were small dwellers of the forest floors, hardly gaining any relevance to the environment around them. Eventually, after the Variagene-Compsogene extinction event, new niches were open, and the sporafiliians were quick to diversify to much larger species. The ambulantians evolved 138 million years ago, in the early Variagene period and started to get big. The modern walker testa is an herbivore whose relatives were spread across all landmasses, including even Terra Septentrionis, rafting there in the Compsogene through Thron, but eventually most of them died out in the Compsogene-Recensgene extinction event, and now they only exist in Occidentis. Eventually the sporafiliis (not to be confused with the wider sporafiliian group) evolved, some 69 million years ago, in the Compsogene, with longer legs to scurry, walk and run along the plains and forests, some becoming fearsome carnivores or small omnivores. Sporafiliians have had their days of success, however they are now restricted in Occidentis, with only the silvafilii found outside the continent, in the temperate woodlands of Auth.

Just like every celeramontian, the sporafiliians were once believed to have been ambulospeculids, until genetic research confirms they are celernantids.

Viridimaxima (276-0)

* Sporafiliia (207-0)
	+ Viridi-anguis-wallaci
	+ Ambulantia (138-0)
		- Walker testa
		- Sporafilii (69-0)
			* Silvaafilii
			* Sporanti
* Oculexia (251-0)

## Characteristics

Sporafiliians are yet another group of weird and wonderful creatures. They are the basalmost viridmaximans, yet they possess various derived features, including the lack of limbs their ancestors once possessed. *Viridi* is legless and has become a snake-like creature, meanwhile the ambulantians have four legs, though they have one vestigial pair of limbs hidden under the flesh, more visible in sporanti. Walker testa have column-like legs, while the sporafiliis have long stick-like legs to walk and run with more efficiency and speed. Sporanti is bipedal, with two of its limbs being held upwards, and holding a very large spur to spear into prey, that is only present in adults, as young have small lumps instead. Their eyes are usually very simillar among the different sporafiliians, with two compound eyes in their face. Walker testa has forward facing sight, unusual for an herbivore, but it really is the only option as its armour blocks the sides of the face of the creature. The mouth of the sporafiliians are different, but usually only composed of the proboscises. *Viridi* has a central proboscis with teeth to catch and swallow prey whole, but the two other proboscises have lost their potential for swallowing and consuming food, instead having bony projections to help the creature proccess the food and manipulate it so that it can go down into the central proboscis. Walker testa has weird proboscis, three of them are used for feeding, but each is split into three different tubular "branches", each branch ending in a foot long tongue that is used to eat food. Eventually the nine branches lead the food upwards into the main three proboscises and eventually to the main oral orifice, passing through a series of "teeth" that proccess the food. These "branches" are believed to have been an adaptation to feed while its head is stuck between its armored plates. Silvaafilii have one proboscis covered in skin that forms a unified trunk, with molars inside to crush and proccess the food. The other two proboscises are atrophied and are shorter, being held further back inside the trunk. Sporanti have three proboscises with teeth on the tip to proccess the meat they eat, though the proboscises are linked by skin in some of its length. Sporafiliians have their respiratory orifices placed in positions coherent to their terrestrial habits, but under each orifice there are inflatable sacs that are linked with each other forming a lung chain. This is not a novel characteristic, but the fact sporafiliians have these, is coherent with their more developed metabolism and abbility of absorbing oxygen, as this indicates better control over its muscles. This characteristic puts them in more advantage than other terrestrial celernantids, like the patellajulians. Each orifice, though, contains internal gills, reminiscent of their aquatic ancestry. They also have a particularly good sense of smell, as represented by their advanced olfactory pits in their rostrum. Sporafiliians, just like most viridimaximans, have extensive bony armor. *Viridi* snake-like body prevents it from having much armour but it has a armored head and "neck" to protect it from struggling prey. Walker testa is by far the most evolved in terms of armor. Their ancient extinct relatives, spread across the world had largely spikeless armor, but the Occidentis extant walker testa has these very long colorful spikes poking out of it, and they have been developing those for thousands of years. Walker testa has large plates of armour extending to the sides of the head that block its lateral vision... fortunetly they are very big and indestructible. Silvaafilii have armour in their dorso, meanwhile sporanti have limited armour, mostly to preserve its agility. but small spikes, as well as some large ones, are present.

Their size is variable. Silvaafilii is the smallest, with 17-18 centimeters in length. *Viridi* is, on average, a one meter long snake-like creature. Meanwhile the true giants sporanti and walker testa, reach huge sizes. Sporanti stands 5-7 meters tall and 4-5,6 meters long. Walker testa is 4,5 meters tall and 7 meters long, being already one of the largest terrestrial celernantids of all, possibly only surpassed by the dune roamers in terms of length, though likely not in weight.

## Distribution and habitat

Sporafiliians were so successful, specially back in the Variagene and Compsogene, that they were spread across every continent, including Occidentis, Auth, Virtu, Media Insula and Terra Septentrionis. The sporafiliis were spread across Occidentis and Tenebris specially, and the walker testa lineage was spread across every continent, including the adjacent Tenebris continental agglomerate, and even reached Media Insula and Terra Septentrionis through Thron. Until very recently, in the last hundreds of thousands of years, they were lingering in all of these continents, until they went extinct everywhere except Occidentis. In the last thousands of years is known that severe ice age like events occured that disrupted the global climate for a short period of time, and the climate sensitive walker testas were likely affected and were instinct everywhere, except the secluded swampy environments of Occidentis. In Media Insula, the periodic changes in drought and wet periods were already dictating prejudice to the walker testas, and eventually they died out there too. Sporafiliis went extinct with the cold climated of Virtu, and eventually Auth became a deserted pit for terrestrial celernantid diversity, forcing silvaafilii to be the only sporafiliian left in the temperate woodlands of Auth. Sporafiliians have suddenly, other than this exception, become restricted to Occidentis. *Viridi* lives in forests and swamps of the continent. Walker testa live in swampy environments and coasts as well. Sporanti, a cursorial predator, hunts in the open plains of the continent.

## Diet

The diet of sporafiliians is varied. *Viridi* is a carnivore, which uses its central proboscis to feed and grab prey. They hunt like a snake, ambushing, ready to launch at the prey in fast bursts of speed. Eventually the backward facing teeth prevent the prey from escaping, as it swallows it all. Its other two proboscises help in the swallowing proccess. For prey that are too big, they use constriction to keep the prey from moving around. The spiracles suck atmospherical air, inflating the body so that it gets complicated for the prey to escape. These spiracles are also used to inflate and relax the muscles for motion. Walker testa, meanwhile, is a herbivore, though males often eat small dispeculates in the mating season, whose properties stimulate the production of powerful male hormones. The three proboscises are divided, each, in three branches, each ending in a foot long tongue to eat and feast on soft plant material. Silvaafilii are omnivores, that use their small trunk to swallow and chew small morsels of food found in the forest floor. Sporanti are carnivores, using their long spear-like limbs to puncture the flesh and kill their prey as they run after them. Their proboscises have teeth to slice the flesh they feed on.

## Behaviour, sociality and intelligence

Some sporafiliians are pretty intelligent and social. When comparing the intelligence of sporanti, they have been found to be at the same level as Earth's lions, capable of making simple math sums. However, sporanti are territorial and defend their hunting grounds from intruders. Silvaafiliis also defend their feeding grounds from intruders. Walker testa, meanwhile live in herds, where males compete fiercely for their right of mating when its opportune. The color of the armor and spikes dictates the dominant male. Usually herds are peaceful when they have a limited amount of individuals, like 12, though when the herd gets to about sixteen individuals, tensions between prepubescent males start to arise and deadly fights follow, with only one male winning a place in the herd, as the others migrate to other herds. *Viridi* lacks any form of social skills, but they do tend to avoid each other outside of the mating season, defending their hunting territory.

## Reproduction

Like most celernantids, sporafiliians lay eggs. Just like the typical basal celeramontian, their eggs are laid on the water or in moist environments. They are hatched and are water-breathing for some time and then they procceed to pursue a land-dwelling life. Sporafiliians, however, do not abandon their offspring. *Viridi* lay their eggs in moist places or small puddles in the forest, until the babies hatch and are sufficiently grown to become air-breathers. Once that happens they can then go on with their life, without the protection of their mother. Walker testa also lay their eggs on the water. The herd makes a common waterhole where all the females lay their eggs there. The babies hatch and are water-breathing for a while until they finally become fully air-breathers and now can follow the mothers in the herd. Silvaafilii lay their eggs in a small puddle as well, and guard the eggs until they hatch, and after the babies are fully grown up to become air-breathers. Silvaafilii young will still follow their mother at this point, until they are grown enough to feed for themselves. Sporanti, simillarly, also lay eggs on a small muddy puddle, where they are carefully protected by the mother, until they hatch as larvae, and eventually develop air-breathing capabilities. As land-dwelling babies they will follow their mother, as their spear-like arms are still in development. All sporafiliians will give food to the developing larvae before they become terrestrial.