Bark-nippers

### General information

Common name: Bark-nippers (the displayed species is Arborserpereus albiventris, also known as the white-bellied bark-nipper)

Scientific name: Arborserpereidae

Creator: TheSwift (all credit for the original concept goes to the original author of Arborserpereidae)

Clade: Ambulospeculida > Alcyoneuvermia > Tribeccus (Snuffs & relatives)

Habitats: Varied forest types of the Temperate Oceanic and Humid continental biomes on southwestern mainland Terra Septentrionis, and commonly distrubuted across varied forest types on both Northern and Southern Tesminia.

Size: 30-60 cm (most species are sexually dimorphic, with females being slightly smaller than males)

Diet: Wide range of small Dispeculates living in and around bone trees and other big Polyspeculates

Reproduction: Ovoviviparous

### Systematics

Bark-nippers belong to the clade known as Tribeccus, which encompasses the snuffs, spear dogs, bone peckers and a variety of other fuzzy Dispeculates. Within Tribeccus, the bark-nippers have a very basal position, being the sister group to the Corythodorsumidae or barding snuffs. Interestingly, these two groups are the only lineage within Tribeccus that have developed full body armor. However, both families have followed different evolutionary paths. The Arborserpereidae developed a more lightweight "armor" composed of a dense coat of sharp, keratinous spines with full armor only being present on the head in the form of numerous keratinous plates. In contrast, Corythodorsumids developed an armadillo-like armour of plates covering almost the entire body. This unique evolutionary phenomenon is comparable to Thyreophoran dinosaurs where several, closely related lineages developed very different, but functional, armor. Within Dispeculates, bark-pickers belong to the Alcyoneuvermia clade of Ambulospeculida, which includes both the snuffs and the crowned ice-beasts.

The Arborserpereidae itself encompasses 19 species within three subfamilies. The Tesminireinae contains the two species of North Tesminian bark-nippers which are native to a small part of Northern Tesminia. The Gigasciinae contains 8 species; the three species of the giant bark-nippers, which are endemic to Southern Tesminia, and the five species of peacock bark-nippers, distributed across Southern Tesminia and mainland Terra Septentrionis. The males of these species have brightly colored and greatly enlarged head armor, creating a both intimidating and beautiful sight. The last subfamily, the Arborserpereinae contains the remaining 9, more generic bark-nipper species, which occur on both Southern Tesminia and mainland Terra Septentrionis. The pictured white-bellied bark-nipper is a member of the Arborserpereinae.

### Distribution

These small, agile and often curious Dispeculates are common in the forests of southern Terra Septentrionis and both Northern and Southern Tesminia. However, on Northern Tesminia only the two members of the Tesminireinae are present. Throughout their range, bark-nippers can be found in the Humid Continental and Temperate Oceanic climate zones. They rarely venture in habitats located in other biomes; however, several populations of Northern Tesminian bark-nippers have been observed to venture into the colder and more arid habitats of the Sub Arctic biome. This is interesting, as bark-pickers are a generally arboreal lineage, and this phenomenon might show that in the future, these populations might become more specialized to open habitats, showing evolution at work.

### Anatomy

Bark-nippers look alot like your general Tribeccus-member, but two key characteristics define them. The armor which is present on the head is divided into several ridges, creating a rugose texture. Furthermore, near the posterior end, two sharp horns are present. The head armor is different for each species, and is often very useful for determining species. Of all bark-nippers, the peacock bark-nippers might have the biggest head armor, with large, flat and brightly colored ridges, and big, intimidating horns. Bark-nippers are sexually dimorphic, with females generally being smaller and less contrastly colored; furthermore, the head-armor of females is generally divided into less ridges (5-7) than that of males (8-10).

Their two pairs of spiracles are located just behind the 2nd pair of limbs. The proboscises are, as with most snuffs, embedded in some sort of "mouth", with an enlarged middle proboscis with a robust, horny coverage. The two smaller proboscises are located next to this large proboscis, with a smaller horny coverage. Their backs, tails and parts of their front limbs are covered in sharp, keratinous spines; the amount of spines and their length varies with each species.

### Behaviour

Bark-nippers display various types of unique social and sexual behavior. Bark-nippers are ovoviviparous, meaning that the eggs stay within the mother until they hatch, so they are technically live-bearing. They are often found within small family groups, with a mating pair and several young from the year before helping to raise the newborns. The amount of young varies from species to species, but generally litter size is around 3-5 young at a time.

When te mating period starts, male bark-pickers begin to show more agressive behaviour towards other males, which eventually leads to a period where males start to battle each other for dominance over certain females. Generally, males display some sort of pachycephalosaur-like headbutting behaviour where they press their heads together and wrestle with each other, often using the enlarged claws on their front limbs to wound their opponent. Peacock bark-nipper males have abandoned this behaviour, instead relying on visual display for intimidation. Their head armor is enlarged and brightly colored in the mating season, and males will face each other and perform some sort of stare-down contest, standing still in front of each other until one of them leaves.

When threatened, all bark-nippers display typical behavior. The back is raised, the tail is swept in front of the body, and the head armor is aimed at the threat. All spines are raised, probably to look bigger and more threatening.

The foraging method of bark-nippers is quite reminiscent of that of both armadillos and anteaters, using their large middle proboscis and enlarged claws on each front limb to strip away bark on bone trees and other large Polyspeculates to look for small prey underneath. After they strip away the bark, they use their smaller side proboscises to pierce prey if present. An exeption to this method are the giant bark-nippers. These larger species are generally not arboreal and instead prefer to live on the ground. Therefore, they usually go after dead bone trees or other large, dead Polyspeculates to forage for prey; when foraging they use the same method as other bone-nippers. However, they have been observed to scavenge dead Dispeculates, a phenomenon unique to this lineage of bone-nippers.