Herpaligo

The clade **Herpaligo** contains a variety of species, all of which can be traced through the fossil record to originate from a species of laxocumulus that was located in Terra Septentrionis. While the clade itself is fairly ancient, most lineages from it are extinct, save for two: the crocodile-esque **Antiosteates**, and the froglike **Euosteates**. The vast majority of creatures in this clade are carnivorous, though a few oddballs that have been spotted.

Common characteristics across the whole clade include the presence of 6 limbs, a shell on the back, smooth skin, and advanced camera-style eyes. An ancestral feature of this clade is the ability to hue shift, though not all present members have this ability.

## **Antiosteates**

### **Terra-Septentrionis Croconaut** ***(Laxopraxis croconautii)***

**Name:** Common Croconaut or Terra-Septentrionis Croconaut.

**Creator:** Woomy;)

**Clade:** Laxoculma, Herpaligo, Antiosteates

**Habitat:** rivers and streams in the taiga of T-S, occasionally wandering over to the lakes and oceans, but not straying too far.

**Size:** Average size is 3 meters, most get to a max of 3.5, but the largest ever recorded was 4 meters.

**Diet:** Any dispeculate unlucky enough to come to the water's edge

**Reproduction:** Hermaphroditic, a tentacle like appendage inside the mouth is used to place a small package of sperm inside the reproductive sack, a sort of womb also located in the mouth. The sperm fertilizes some egg cells, which grow a fleshy coating around them and are laid in the water to begin growing.

   Croconauts are vicious predators with a nasty reputation for eating things much larger than themselves. Theyre armed with a thick retractable spike, for stabbing at the necks of unfortunate dispeculate prey, as well as a sharp beak used for flaying said creatures. Defensively, they're also well off, with hard spiny shells that blend in with river rocks, as well as skin that has slight hue shifting capabilities. They can change from white to green, which allows them effortless camouflage at all times. Croconauts have very special eyes. These eyes can protrude almost half a meter out from the rest of the body in order to look above water, and can also hue shift to white if needed. They're surrounded by a special layer of boney shell that can be closed or opened, like a primitive eyelid. This allows them to defend their special eyes in combat.

Other than their beaks, spines, and shells, croconauts possess no hard parts, meaning that they're incredibly flexible. They can fully retract into their shells, and usually remain partially retracted at almost all times, only showing their eyes, limbs, and tail. This allows them to be flatter against the riverbed, which is good for ambushes. In case of extreme emergency, they can completely retract their entire body into their shell and curl up like an armadillo.

While the croconaut has gills, it also absorbs oxygen directly through its skin, meaning it can spend quite a bit of time out of water as long as it carries some water with it. The gills can hold up to a liter of water at a time on land, which can last them about 30 minutes given proper breathing and little activity.

### **Bladed Croconaut *(Laxopraxis maximus)***

**Name:** Commonly called Bladed Croconauts, Tesminian Croconauts or Deadly Blobs.

**Creator:** Woomy;)

**Clade:** Laxoculma, Herpaligo, Antiosteates

**Habitat:** aquatic areas in the temperate rainforest and surrounding regions of the Tesminian Islands

**Size:** 5 meters, but some can get up to 6 if they're particularly long lived

**Diet:** any moving thing that isnt toxic or spiny

**Reproduction:** hermaphroditic, a tentacle-like appendage is used to place a small package of sperm inside the reproductive sack, a sort of womb located inside the mouth, of another individual. The sperm fertilizes some egg cells, which grow a fleshy covering around them, and are then regurgitated into water to begin growing.

The Bladed Croconaut, also known as Tesminian Croconauts or Deadly Blobs, is among the largest species in the Herpaligo clade, growing over 5 meters in length and weighing well over 990 KG. Because of this, they are masters of their environment. Anything they can grab hold of is food. They are slow moving, typically, floating completely still under the water with their eyes looking out above it. They like to hide among plants, which conceals them further. When some unfortunate target comes by to get a drink, the croconaut lunges forth, knife claw at the ready, and skewers its prey, swiftly ending their trip to the water fountain. They eat by cutting chunks off of their catch with their claw, then eating the chunks. If their prey is small enough, it may just bite it in half with its serrated beak, then eat it. Their mouth can extend from their body quite a distance, making catching small aquatic prey an easy task.

Other than feeding behaviors, they exhibit some intelligence, as well as some social behaviors. Despite their wild feeding response, they seem to benefit from living within close proximity to other croconauts, even those of different species, and will even play with each other on occasion, drumming out rythems on rocks with loose branches and such, or tossing prey items back and forth between each other.

Bladed croconauts, during mating season, will migrate to the waters between the two islands they inhabit. During this time, the beaches are utterly swarmed with croconauts, and they often fight over desirable individuals. Their courtship display involves a quick shifting of hues in rapid succession, back and forth between dark green, grey, and dark blue. Normally they use the hue shifting for camouflage, but during breeding season, they attempt to be as colorful as possible for their mates. Like the croconauts on the mainland, their eyes are very special, being able to parascope out of the water as well as guard themselves with ossified lids. These eyes can shift between seeing normal visible light to ultraviolet and infrared by shifting layers at the back of the eye to accommodate different wavelengths. This helps them see better at night, as well as in murky water.

### **Treenauts (*Arbopraxis laxosquamus)***

**Name:** Commonly called Treenauts or Coconauts

**Creator:** Corax.Lara

**Clade:** Laxoculma/ Herpaligo/ Antiosteates

**Habitat:** In arboreal areas nearby bodies of water, specially common to see them in Rambucoco Mangroves.

**Size:** between 30cm and 50 cm in length

**Diet:** Omnivores, eating small dispeculates and particularly liking to eat the many seeds and fruits in their biome.

**Reproduction:** Similar to other Croconauts, they are hermaphroditic, they use a tentacle like organ to place a small packet of sperm inside a womb inside the other individual’s mouth, later on the young are regurgitated a sort of “oral birth” and they develop outside in a nest created by the parents, the nest frequently being located inside Rambucocos.

These very weird, arboreal, semiaquatic, Chameleon or frog like organisms where one of the first “animals” we found living inside of the Rambucoco Mangroves. The thing is, these animalistic creatures aren’t Dispeculates at all, instead being *a very divergent and weird group of Laxoculma Polyspeculate that resemble dispeculates to a great degree in the present.* They however have many traits that show their strange ancestry, their trunk and tail for example, being two corresponding limbs. Since these animals evolved from more radial forms, *they have become bilateral by making one of their tentacles a tail and the other a trunk like limb.* This is true with all Croconauts, and the little Treenaut is no exception.

The exception however comes in the fact that the Treenaut has had to develop an endoskeleton of sorts, something no other croconaut has been able to do. These cartilaginous rods that conform the endoskeleton in their limbs is mostly to be able to grab and climb trees and to support their weight out of water. That’s another innovation they have been able to evolve, *being able to survive away from water for up to five hours before drying up.* All of these adaptations just to let them be able to survive in the semiaquatic/semiarboreal environment they currently thrive in.

Living in small family groups of up to 10 individuals, these small animals were seen in many arboreal habitats around the coasts and rivers. Their social behavior starts when they are very young, as their parents immediately after “mouth birthing” them, put them in a nest or den inside Rambucoco mangroves or other trees. There they feed the younglings a regurgitated food mixture until they are old enough to walk and defend themselves. Most Treenauts take up to 2 years to mature to that stage, and they usually become sexually active at that age as well. Even if mature, they tend to stick to their parents, forming small family groups that are very protective of one another. A feature we observed is that they frequently caress each other’s faces with their six feelers, probably as a way to groom each other or to comfort each other.

They are specially common in the Rambucoco Mangroves, being seen breaking the fruits open with their powerful beaks and claws. Their second common name “coconaut” actually being derived by the fact that these little critters are known to sometimes use the Rambucoco shells as a secondary shield of sorts. In a similar way to hermitcrabs but instead of shells using weird Coco like fruits. This is due to their very reduced shell no longer being able to protect them fully, so small Treenauts have been seen using two halves of a Rambucoco fruit as a singular ball like shell to protect themselves if they have no other resources availabl

But here’s the thing, Treenauts despite their very frog like appearance, *are much smarter and resourceful*, almost comparable to weird little semiaquatic monkeys. They have been seen defending themselves with large branches using them as makeshift clubs, or simply climbing away from danger with their nimble movements. And since they are a very social species, its highly likely that if one individual spots danger, it will warn all the others to run away and hide way before the actual threat comes close. If they are cornered however, they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. They like other croconauts are able to colorshift, and they are able to turn themselves *bright orange in a threat display to scare away predators*, if that doesn’t work they have huge claws to defend themselves, and they could also hide using the Rambucoco shell strategy. As such, while they have many predators, in the way of aquatic oses, large birbs, even other much bigger croconauts, *they don’t loose many individuals due to being quite resourceful.*

### **Terranauts *(Terrapraxis saltatus)***

**Name:** commonly known as Terranauts or Earthnauts.

**Creator:** Corax.Lara

**Clade:** Laxoculma/ Herpaligo/ Antiosteates

**Habitat:** Found in Temperate rainforests and Oceanic rainforests in Terra Septentrionis.

**Size:** Around 30 to 60 cms long

**Diet:** omnivores, preferring to eat small fruits and insect like xenopedans.

**Reproduction:** They are similar to other Antiosteates like croconauts and treenauts in being hermaphroditic, using a tentacle like organ to place a small packet of sperm inside the other individual’s mouth, later on the offspring are regurgitated in a “oral birth”. In difference to their close relatives the treenauts, terranauts barely care for their young, only for a few weeks before driving them off to survive on their own.

These small little salamander-like creatures were first encountered on our way to South Tesminia’s eastern coast. Deep in the damp forest of Tesminia, its hard to find some organisms that might hide in the crooks and crannies of the place. However, when one of our team mates almost stepped on one of these almost invisible critters, we saw something we hadn’t witnessed ever before, *the Terranaut’s remarkable “Tail jumps”.*

Terranauts are very clearly a close relative of Treenauts, another Antiosteate that lives mostly in more arboreal environments. This new species however was found much deeper inland than its more coastal relative. Being well camouflaged and rather inactive, its very easy to miss them, unless ofcourse, you scare them and they start tail jumping away! Terranauts seem to be skittish creatures, we found out they much rather jump away with their powerful tails than stand there and fight. Not that they are incapable of doing so, on the contrary, Terranauts have large claws and beaks capable of creating deep injuries, and their colorchanging abilities lets them flash bright red to scare predators, however their “tail jumps” is probably their best defensive measures.

    Their tail like the Treenaut’s is very muscular, aswell as having many small claw-like tubercules on it to help it grasp at stuff and help it push against the floor. These pushes, along with help of their back legs lets the Terranaut *jump up to 3 meters forwards to escape predators.* However, they tend to not be the most effective at landing, usually just scrambling around and running away after jumping. This is effective enough with most predators, as the jump tends to startle them, giving them enough time to run away.

These small terrestrial croconauts still need to go on water occasionally, however. Being able to stay out of water for up to 5 hours before dehydrating, they manage these by having thicker skin then their relatives as well as absorbing more water through their mucus-soaked skin. These, combined with their preferred environments being already very moist and rainy lets the terranaut walk around happily without much of a worry.

## **Euosteates**

### **Frosted Polefrog *(Pansaurus Blankii)***

**Name:** Frosted Polefrog

**Creator:** Woomy;)

**Clade:** Laxocumulus/Herpaligo/Euosteates

**Habitat:** anywhere in the taiga where there is freshwater, including ponds, rivers, streams, lakes, and even puddles occasionally.

**Size:** Typical adult specimens get between .3 and .5 meters in length.

**Diet:** anything that moves and can fit in its mouth.

**Reproduction:** hermaphroditic, individuals lay eggs in water and then other individuals come and fertilize the eggs, which hatch into squid-like tadpoles, often called polywogs.

With a hard shell atop their soft bodies, a mouth that opens far too wide, and a pair of feelers used for grasping at food items, these grumpy little monsters are well equipped to handle anything that comes their way. Starting life as a squid-like polywog, they band together in huge schools both for protection and for food. Any small dispeculate unlucky enough to swim past a swarm of Polefrog tadpoles can be expected to be nothing but a pile of bones by the next day. That said, larger dispeculates can take advantage of this convenient little swarm of food-shaped creatures, quickly sniping several members at a time. For a polefrog tadpole, life is always extreme and brutal.

Polefrog tadpoles don't stay as pack hunting squidlets forever, though. Eventually, they start to develop hard, bone-like rods in their back and middle limbs, and their skin becomes less translucent, gaining an elegant white and gray pattern. Their protruding eyes develop intense musculature that allows them to rotate almost 360 degrees in all directions, which is handy when they need to simultaneously keep watch for danger and also keep an eye on a potential prey. Polefrogs are not an enjoyable meal, mostly for their bitter taste that they gain as they age, but also because they put up a serious fight. Polefrogs have been observed attempting to engage in combat with much larger creatures, often to humorous effect. Most creatures that share their habitat have learned to simply ignore them. Polefrogs eat by leaping onto their prey and swallowing it whole, biting it as hard as it can swiftly and repeatedly to make sure it's dead before it gets swallowed. Their leaps are truly incredible, with one eyewitness account claiming to have seen one jump 4 meters in one bound to catch a wandering prey item. Polefrogs usually live for about 6 years in the wild, but they could live much longer if they weren't constantly challenging death itself.

### **Giant Polefrog (*Pansaurus suprema)***

**Name:** Giant Polefrog, Tesminian Polefrog

**Creator:** Woomy;)

**Clade:** Laxocumulus/Herpaligo/Euosteates

**Habitat:** the taiga of North Tesminia, a large island off the coast of Terra Septentrionis.

**Size:** they continuously grow throughout their lives, but most get cut short at about 1.2 to 1.5 meters.

**Diet:** anything that moves that can fit in its mouth.

**Reproduction:** hermaphroditic, individuals lay eggs in brackish water towards the mouths of rivers, and other individuals come to fertilize them. They then hatch into squid-like tadpoles, often called polywogs.

Most of what's true for the frosted polefrog is true for the giant polefrog as well, just scaled up. They're brutish, have insatiable appetites, and pick fights with everything. Their immense size allows them to more easily kill prey, often snapping its bones or cracking exoskeleton upon landing. They are incredibly heavy and coated with hard armor, and their leaps are even more remarkable than their smaller cousins. Notably, the polefrog tadpoles have higher salt tolerance than their frosted brethren, leading some to be spotted attempting escape to the mainland from the island. Thankfully, they arent that resilient, lest they wind up taking out everything on T-S. They can get about half a mile out before they die of salt poisoning. Other than that, in comparison to the frosted polefrog polywogs, the giant polefrog polywogs are larger, and covered in an even harder, spinier shell.

While giant polefrogs still possess the awful flavor common to other polefrog species, it is somewhat more subdued, with some predators being able to tolerate it. This is likely the reason it has developed hard armor and a huge size. The Tesminian Wallamander, however, has been noted to actively hunt down giant polefrogs to eat. These hunts usually result in an epic battle, though it's rare the polefrogs come out on top. More often than not, the wallamander wins. The giant polefrog lives for about 12 years in the wild, which is longer than the frosted polefrog, but still notably not as long as it could live. Its been theorized that given enough time, one could reach 2 meters, or even 2.5 meters under the right circumstances.

### **Branchfrogs *(Kladianura)***

**Name:** Branchfrogs

**Creator:** So\_drabulous

**Clade:** Laxocumulus/Herpaligo/Euosteates

**Habitat:** Southern Terra Septentrionis

**Size:** 11cm in length average (16cm largest specimen)

**Diet:** Carnivore (small fauna)

**Reproduction:** Oviparious

An arboreal family of Polefrogs that originally came from Media Insula. Evidence gathered from specimens suggest they came the Terra Septentrionis fairly recently and are now found commonly in warmer and or wetter regions. Bizarrely this group has developed an extra pair of limbs that are small in other Polefrogs but are used along with its regular legs aided by cling pads to climb around in its forest home, they are very rarely found in ponds or rivers presumably finding enough moisture from tree condensation and pockets of water in the trees. This has come as a tradeoff to bulk and power many Polefrogs have evident in their small size

They feed off smaller animals, stalking them slowly and then launching itself pseudo forelimbs still attached to its prey gobbling it up quickly. It has been recorded that some even catch flying prey in midair (However this can often lead to some dying from miscalculated falls). During breeding season males will find pools mostly in the forms of phytotelmas (pools made from plant cavities) to attract females with a place to raise their young. They usually raise 1-3 tadpole like larvae within these pools according to size feeding them on unfertilised eggs or regurgitated prey.

Individuals found on Media Insular however are slightly longer (though not often as bulky) and come in a variety of colours and mimicry patterns.

### **Colossal Polefrog *(Cessamphibia mortalith)***

**Name:** Colossal Polefrog, Woomy’s Beartrap Polefrog

**Creator:** Woomy;)

**Clade:** Laxoculmus, Herpaligo, Euosteates

**Habitat:** scattered populations across the northern tesminian island, mostly localized in the temperate rainforest near rivers and estuaries.

**Size:** up to 2 meters

**Diet:** anything that steps on it and is of its size or smaller

**Reproduction:** Hermaphroditic, individuals lay eggs in brackish water towards the mouths of rivers, and other individuals come to fertilize them. They then hatch into squid-like tadpoles, called polywogs.

The colossal polefrog is so named because it is the largest species of polefrog in all of Wallace II. These magnificent beasts get to two meters, and weigh well over 80 kilograms. In their natural habitat, they prey on creatures of their size or smaller, but occasionally will try and eat something larger than them if they're confident they can do so. They feed by grappling prey with the tentacles on its face, then forcing the prey into its mouth, and biting down as hard as possible with its long, dagger-like teeth, before swallowing it whole. Their natural coloration resembles the dirt that they live on, and individuals have been spotted with many different colors ranging from dull, mossy brown, to a vibrant clay red color. Their shells, however, are grey, and resemble stones. When lying perfectly still on the forest floor, they are very difficult to distinguish from the surrounding terrain, especially because they sometimes partially bury themselves in soil or foliage to hide better.

The reason colossal polefrogs get so large is because they have shed the unpleasant demeanor of their cousins, who will attempt combat with anything that moves. Colossal polefrogs are naturally timid, and will not move from their chosen spot unless absolutely necessary. Due to their slow metabolism, it can take them a very long time to reach full size, but they never stop growing. Once they get to two meters in length, their hearts have trouble pumping blood throughout their bodies, which causes them to die from lack of oxygen. Individuals can live for roughly 100 years before they succumb to this fate. Also because of their slow metabolism, they dont have to eat very often, which makes their disguise all the more convincing when they're digesting their prey. If they are still digesting and are stepped on, they seize up and tighten, causing them to feel like rocks. Creatures then don't notice other individuals because they think that the polefrogs are just normal terrain features, until eventually one of those polefrogs gets a meal. Colossal polefrogs, while capable of jumping, arent very good at it. Their leaps aren't nearly as impressive as the giant polefrogs that live on the other island.

### **Fire Polefrogs *(Aquanino ignis)***

**Name:** Fire Polefrog, Punk Polefrog

**Creator:** Woomy;)

**Clade:** laxocumulus, herpaligo, Euosteates

**Habitat:** the wetlands of Southern Terra Septentrionis

**Size:** 5 Centimeters Diet: anything that moves that it can swallow whole

**Reproduction:** Punk Polefrogs reproduce much the same way as other polefrogs, individuals lay eggs in brackish water towards the mouths of rivers, and other individuals come to fertilize them. They then hatch into squid-like tadpoles, called polywogs.

Perhaps some of the smallest this clade has to offer, the Punk polefrog is known for being the most social, and also the meanest of all polefrogs. They establish their presence by making loud calls that can only be described as "Banal and Contemporary". They eat primarily small dispeculates, but will eat polyspeculates as well, such as small sibidosians and other various members of their clade, such as juvenile polefrogs of other species. Notably, they dont eat each other, perhaps due to the Spiny armor on their backs. While not known to be poisonous, they do flash blue warning colors when threatened by larger creatures. They don't seem to have any concept of size advantage and will actively seek conflict with creatures they could never hope to defeat in 1 on 1 combat. Luckily for them, most creatures have learned to pay them no mind, as killing them yields next to no reward. They appear to have the worst flavor of any species of polefrog, with even the least picky of predators avoiding eating them. They dry out the inside of the mouth and leave behind incredibly fowl tasting residues for several hours.

As with other polefrogs, these nasty beasts will reproduce anywhere where there is water. This includes rivers, beaches, swamps, puddles, and even pools of water inside the grooves of plants. Punk polefrog breeding season is a joyous time for a lot of creatures, as punk polefrog larvae are a prime source of nutrients for many predators. In stark contrast to the adults, they are delicious, and have yet to develop their Spiny armor. They are, however, dangerous in large groups. Injured or sick creatures tend to avoid the feast.

Very few of the millions of offspring make it to adulthood, and yet thousands of adults manage to gather in the following spring. Punk polefrogs reach adulthood at about 3 months old, and live for 3 years, though most never get anywhere close to that old.