Ao-Oni: Martinian Rainforest

Bigger Picture here: i.imgur.com/i2l6KkF.jpg

The vast island sub-continent of Martinia is the largest completely cut off piece of land on Ao-Oni, with an area of 1.62 million square kilometres. Unlike many of the other islands, it is quite recent, and has  a similar history to Earth’s Zealandian area. That is to say, it has had several varations of going from a chain of islands, to a landmass, to sinking almost completely. A few limited remnants from past times remain, but most of the fauna is the descendants of flying draconians of many migrations past which have evolved in the lack of competition, although they are not alone of course. The landmass is very horizontal in picture, and so the climate tends to be quite similar except for its far western peninsula which juts out of it, which is cooler and drier than the rest of the island, and thus has more open habitat to it. This includes a small basalt plain, which is a habitat not found anywhere on Earth, formed by volcanic basalt eruptions of the past, similar to the far larger ones of Mu. The general part of the peninsula mixes between open forests, savannahs, full forests and even rainforest. It is the latter of these habitats that we shall first explore.

Most of the plants that grow in this part of the world are the distant descendents of small flowering plants such as dandylions, grasses, self-seeding plants, ailainthus and cacti, with some ferns and horsetails amongst them. This means there are no conifers, gingkos, true bamboos or oak descendents unlike most of the mainland. As a result, the flora here boasts a substantially different look towards it, with the feather-trees dominating much of the canopy. These are immense descendents of dandylions, the largest of which can reach up to 60m in height, and the trees themselves can weigh in excess of 500 tonnes. Below them are fern and ailainthus descendants forming an intermediate layer. It is in these that our first creature lives. These strange animals are known as tree-wyverns (acroikitherium saurimimes). Tree-wyverns are remnants of an ancient group known as the wyverns that once thrived in Triberia to the north of them, and found their way to the pre-Martinian island chains and flourished there, coming in many different shapes and forms. When they almost completely sank, very few of them survived, and as draconians colonised the islands before the plateau once again resurfaced, they were stuck in a limited availability of niches. However, the trees are one habitat in which these creatures thrive.  They have a very reptilian appearance to them, and are indeed ectothermic, having derived from the rest of the Ao-Oni fauna a significant time ago. Thus, what was once their hair is limited only to particular regions of their body, such as on the back and around the joints. The rest of the animal’s skin is leathery and green, resembling some kind of pelicosaur. The limbs of the animal are all quite long, which is unusual for their kind, and they help it swing between different branches easily, with the back legs having atrophied almost entirely. The bodies, as the name suggests are long and flexible, with a reasonable length neck and tail as well. The head has large red eyes, enabling stereoscopic vision, which allows it to move safely and effectively, as well as to help find its food. It is an omnivorous animal in lifestyle, feeding primarily on insects and small saurodonts which make their home here, as well as leaves and seeds, plus the occasional fungus. The lower jaws remain split, allowing it to swallow larger prey whole. The front teeth are sharp and bite into either flesh or leaf quite easily, while its molars grind and crush any food that isn’t taken apart by this. The ears remain external and classically mammalian in design, giving them a resemblance to some early ideas of dragons. Adult tree-wyverns tend to measure around 1m in length, be about 20cm at the shoulders when on the ground and weigh in the region of 7kg or so. Newborns are much smaller, usually less than 100 grams, and with proportionally larger heads and smaller limbs than the adults. They are quite communal animals and are surprisingly intelligent for ectotherms.

In the forests below, more typical creatures of Martinia exist, being the flightless descendents of the draconians that arrived here millions of years ago in various waves. The creature below is one of the more ancient waves of draconian to arrive, imaginatively named ‘martiniatheres’ due to their prevalence and establishment there. The time in which they arrived was likely when Martinia was a chain of islands, or even under the previous landmass era. These are the drhogons (xenosuipus communis), a strange group of omnivores found throughout these thicker forests. They almost completely lack their wings that their ancestors once had, and instead move around on four equal sized legs, with feet similar to those of a tapir or rhinoceros, but legs more like those of a pig. The arms are fairly large and the hands have the standard radial structure of four fingers, each equipped with a relatively well sized claw allowing effective grabbing of both objects and other hands in displays of power. The neck is thick and horse like, seamlessly fusing the head and body. The head is long and seemingly bird-like in structure, with a large pair of fused primary incisors resembling a beak to forage, while the secondary incisors and canines form eight small tusks. The molars are almost singular and are used to crack open either large nuts or crabs on the beaches. The ears do somewhat resemble those of pigs as well, while the eyes are close to the skull and have thick eyelids, protecting them while they feast on insect mounds, formed by the distant descendants of termites, ants and even eusocial beetles. The tail, like the wings is non-existent, though a deposit of fat exists on the rump, giving the appearance of a very thick tail. There is a significant amount of sexual dimorphism present in these creatures- the females are much larger than the males, measuring about 1.5m in length, measuring 95cm tall at the shoulder and weighing about 110kg, while the males are only 1m in length, 60cm tall and weigh 40kg. They also have proportionally larger tusks than the females and a crest on their forehead shaped like a butterfly, similar to basal giraffids. The fur of both genders is a general auburn colour, with small patches of white on the juveniles, to help them camouflage better, as these creatures have strong parental instincts, and once they form mating pairs, they pair for life to look after the offspring.

In a forest full of strange flightless beasts, one would expect there to also be flying forms that are very prevalent here. And indeed they are. The small avidraconians have produced many flightless forms just like in New Zealand, but this is not one of them. These small creatures are known as flutterflies (beautorniforms ssp.), a common group of small insectivorous avidraconians that thrive on the various small insects and other foods that live on this landmass, and come in a range of diversity similar to the finches of the Galapagos. One species (b. unidontus) uses huge incisors to crack seeds like a rodent. Another (b. dimunitivus) has a thin snout it uses to ease out grubs from under bark which it scratches away with its claws. A radical one (b. terriblis) has small incisors and large canines, used to viciously tear at other flutterflies and feast on them. Other species are specialised to feed on moths, beetles, nectar, grasses and small leaves. One species (b. vampiricus) has a vampire bat like strategy of feeding off the blood of large herbivores, which are surprisingly prevalent in the forests, though much of this is because of migrating through them. Most flutterfly species are quite small, measuring about 12cm excluding the tail flukes and with 20 and 13cm wingspans, although b. terriblis is almost twice this size. They all get their names from their brightly coloured wings, which are often used in sexual display or to disorientate predators. The colours each species have are different to each other as well, allowing these remarkable creatures to be an iconic part of the ecosystem despite what they lack in size or even population.

Being a rainforest, there are naturally large areas of wetland and even swamp located within, creating a thriving environment for semi-aquatic fauna to exist. Alongside the drhogons are some more derived martiniatheres adapted towards this lifestyle, almost resembling giant terrestrial ducks in niche. These strange creatures are known as the gummy-beasts (hadrocheilis aquaticus), a group of herbivores that feeds off underwater vegetation, including but not limited to algae and reeds. They get their name from having extremely large lips which resemble superficially the bill of a platypus, only much more flexible. The actual upper jaw is small and flat, with no teeth, while the lower jaws are over twice as long, though still have a fair bit of lip to them as well. They use these thick extensions to selectively pick and strip plants from the bed, as well as to filter algae. Any larger or harder plants are crushed by the lower jaws’ molars. The eyes and nostrils are high up on the animal’s head like those of a hippopotamus. In these animals the former wings are noticeable as little bumps on the animals back, though they are hardly recognisable anymore as what they once were. The arms are spindly and with webbed hands, which they use to grab the larger vegetation, as well as to groom, hold their offspring and fight off predators. They are much larger than their pig-like relatives, measuring about 2.3m in length, 1.1m at the shoulder and weigh about 400kg due to their robust physique. They are mainly wading animals, though they will still paddle in the water. Their fur is a much darker, almost black colour and is waterproof to boot as well.

Amongst these various herbivores and omnivores, there are almost certainly guaranteed to be a substantial number of carnivores. Along with tree-wyverns which take a niche similar to small carnivorans, there are also predatory members of the flightless draconian clades. This animal is not a member of the ancient martinian line but of a more recent arrival, descended from some relative of Triberia’s saurodont eating predators. This animal has adapted from taking smaller prey into taking much larger creatures, including drhogons and even gummy-beasts, becoming the forest’s apex terrestrial predator. This is the basilisk (rhizodontodracos orcas), a powerful beast evolved to take on some of the forests terrestrial herbivores and omnivores. The animal’s teeth are sharp like those of their relatives, with razor sharp molars to shear flesh, and spike like incisors (12 of them mind you) that they use to stab and grip into their prey. The canines are only present in the lower jaw and somewhat resemble tusks, though they are ideal for eye-based attacks, like with Earth’s jaguars with their prey. Unlike the other lines of predatory draconians here, the neck is still relatively long, with a smaller head-a symbol of its more recent ancestry. It is therefore not as robust as its prey items and instead relies on speed and agility to maim its prey and then kill them quickly. The animal’s bite force is quite powerful and allows it to crack the shells of molluscs and other such creatures, but isn’t very useful against the bones of large animals, being mainly designed to bite out large chunks of flesh and allow the prey to bleed to death. It has fairly long legs for good running, but they are also very muscular at the back to allow jumping onto the backs of prey. The long arms are also muscular and equipped with 5cm claws, allowing it to grip onto the prey’s back before it fatally bites its prey in the neck or skull. The canines will go into the eye ideally and through the brain, leading to a quick fatality, allowing it to eat its food quickly before other predators arrive. Basilisks are quite large predators, measuring about 2m long excluding the 1m long crests on the tail, measure 1.3m tall overall and weigh around 150kg. the flukes on the tail that were once used for aerodynamic abilities are now used to balance the animal as it runs, and also to signal to other members of their species. In mating times, the males flukes fill up with blood and become red to attract mates. The rest of their fur tends to be a dark brown, with black stripes to help them camouflage in the thick undergrowth. They are not the only predators in this forest, but are nevertheless one of the most common large ones.

In the waters lies another type of threat entirely. While the group’s arrival has been relatively recent on the evolutionary scale, the anapod diversity has greatly sky-rocketed, and it was only a matter of time before they reached Martinia from island rafting. And here, they have thrived. In fact, their largest member makes residence here, being a powerful semi-aquatic predator, the anapodaconda (pseudoboa martinius). This beast retains the light coatings of fur of its smaller relatives, but this is far more waterproof, and its external ears are now gone in favour of aquatic movement. It is overall an omnivore, but holds a strong bias towards prey, using sharpened horizontal jaws to capture their prey as they suffocate it using their muscular body. Anapodacondas measure up to 6m in length and can weigh up to 80kg when well fed, so they are powerful enough to take on most smaller herbivores and even some larger ones when need be. The competition with basilisks is common in these forests, just like it was on Earth between the jaguar and anaconda, and is equally brutal. These beasts however are more aquatic creatures, and tend to prey on small aquatic draconians as well as juvenile gummy-beasts. The leaf-brown skin and darker fur help it camouflage in with both the undergrowth and the murky waters in which they make home. What makes them particularly dangerous is that unlike anacondas, they are quite sociable creatures and can and will attack in groups, though this is more common in juveniles admittedly. Nevertheless, they are some of the most formidable predators of any rainforest on Ao-Oni.

The cramped and moist conditions of the forest allow for a large amount of biodiversity, but it also means poor soil quality and an absence of room for larger herbivores to make their home here. Elsewhere on Martinia though, this is a different story, and some more bizarre forms of flightless draconian are present in these regions. You will see them next time!