Sporovenator honei

Sporovenator honei
("Hone's spore hunter", in Honor of David Hone)

This genus has developed over the past 3 to 4 million years on the island chain situated in the shallow sea west of the eastern continent. However, over the last tens of thousands of years they have slowly started to spread on to the mainland and the southern archipelago (although they are way more rare there).

Phylogeny: They are highly derived descendants of the Ambulospeculida. The genus and species is the only of the very specialized subfamily Sporovenatorinae, although recently two new subspecies occured. They are currently speciating.

Anatomy, Morphology, Physiology:
- size comparable to raven, but larger wing span
- only three bony plates remain: one making up the head, one dorsal and one ventral thoracic plate
- no significant measures to reduce bone plate weight or density because of lower surface gravity
- two sets of compound eyes to sense movement or changes in background colour, not used for active vision
- two big, "dominant" eyes for 3D vision very close to our birds
- two small, very motion-sensitive eyes up front to additionally determine changes in 3D-space
- large, segmented brain with huge part devoted to process visual information

- 2 lateral proboscises "air filters", sticky filaments, sensory hairs extending from distalmost tip
- central proboscis used as scraper
- 4 respiratory spiracles per side remain, did not change much with flight because of higher O2 levels, maybe slight increase of inner surface by folded membrane
- one spiracle per side changed to reproductory opening
- one spiracle as waste opening

- 2 cranialmost limbs fused, proximaly only fused at midline to increase surface for muscle attachment
- third pair of limbs incorporated into wing for structural stability
- overall strong downstroke possible if need be (escape, reaching high spots, to counter strong air currents)
- high-aspect sailing wing
- fourth par of lims with membraneous attachment used as rudder, especially when extreme maneuvers necessary
- claws that can swivel almost 360° to climb effectively

Lifestyle:
- they filter and eat spores in flight
- mostly use dynamic soaring, generaly sailing flight preferred
- they rest on high ground (mostly bone trees, cliffs surfaces), NEVER touch the soil if in ANY way avoidable
- CAN fly far offshore in bad years (likely why they started to spread recently), large segmented brain allows for some regions to shut down while others keep controling flight, but they prefer to return home to sleep
- if hunted in air they use their noteworthy musculature and flee, on the ground they mostly rely on their rather inconspicuos greyish colour to hide, but they can be seen lashing out with their claws if an attacker isn't significantly bigger than them
- waste products excreted in flight or to mark territory (especially in males)

Feeding strategy:
- main target are spores of certain motile, planktonic polyspeculates which expel their spores above water to spread them as far as possible via wind dispersal (convergently evolved spores, no relationship to terrestrial polyspeculates)
- all other available spores are taken up as well
-after being scraped up, spores are sucked through a long, folded tube while being covered in a layer of symbiotic bacteria
- then follows a pre-chamber in which the bacteria find ideal living conditions, they start breaking down the indigestible spore walls
- the damaged spores are then passed on into the main chamber, where nutritions, fats etc. are taken up
- the final stage is the take-up of less directly processable components and water in the folded intestine, waste is excreted as a relatively dry, yet sticky paste

Reproduction:
- during reproduction period (a time window of 2 to 4 Earth weeks per year on Wallace II during which females are receptive) the feeding proboscises of males get overgrown with big, bony plating with a thin, colourful membrane covering it - they are unable to feed during this time, meaning a very potent sexual selection factor is active in this taxon
- they will become way more aggressive during this time, claiming a high spot in their environment as their new territory and lashing out to rivals with their frontmost, biggest pair of claws - even bigger predators seem to avoid them during these times
- they will sprawl their plates out and wave them around at their high spot for females to see and be persuaded to land near them, females choose a combination of the "best"display, brightest colours and biggest proboscises
- two different colourations of plating have recently developed (see sketch) - females seem to prefer the colour scheme of their own father
- internal fertilization via two caudolateral "fertilization tubes" of the males
- 4 young develop internaly over about 4 to 5 Earth months
- they are connected to the mother by a kind of umbilical cord, which attaches to the central proboscis
- however, in the final month of development the young start stretching their head-segments out of the mother's reproductive spiracle to filter-feed themselves alternately, the mother feels when her babies are out filtering and does not filter herself when they do
- after birth young Sporovenators are passively protected (like seen in crocs) by adult ones regardless to their relationship
- females are way more long-lived (~10 to 12 Earth years) than males (1 to max. 3 years), because of the strenuous courtship display males have to get through - as a counter measure, more males are being born on average every year