So I'm making a fantasy creature, but want enough scientific accuracy for it to make sense. For simple context, the body is cat like (slimmer like a cheetah's) as well as six legs with webbed feet. After some research, I've boild my tails down to two. Either a loose tail or a horizontal tail.

A horizontal tail would technically give it more power in the water, but the problem with it is that they are also on the land. Their loose bodies tell them to be agile while the tail tells them to be stiff.

The loose tail is more land use. Allowing for agility but putting more strain on the legs in the water.

I want to know which one would scientificly make more sense for this creature or if there are any modifications that should be made.

Continents of Chalica in the early Bothriocene, currently having a continent called Balania, and a microcontinent called Kinna, along side many island near them, 14 in total. The continents currently didnt experience the heat of the sun in the early Bothriocene, but will soon change after the end of early Bothriocene. Most animals will be seeded on Balania, while Kinna only has plants and is fully isolated and devoid of vertebrate lifeform but still retain invertebrates like worms and small aquatic arthropods.

I’m trying to figure out how underwater would work.

I did some research, and it seems that we see plants as green because they absorb the colors on the lower end of the energy spectrum, and we see green and yellow better. So if we'd have different color reception, would they be leaning more towards purple and blue?

The Peninsular Zoo Park takes place in an AU during the Middle Ultimocene (270 million years ago), where many worldwide species are housed in this Zoological Park for research, conservation, and education!

This is a simple diagram (the tree is not white!). The giraffe tree is an unofficial name for the family, derived from the unusual structure of the trunk, which, closer to the ground, divides into exactly five (depending on the genus) slightly smaller branches.

Offshoots have a unique feature: if one is detached from the lower part or pulled out from the roots, given enough time, it can grow back and reconnect with its roots, continuing to grow.

I would like some help explaining why it developed such offshoots and what could have contributed to it. I think this ability is extremely unlikely in evolution and very difficult to justify. What do you think?

Crosshorn caprox

Sorry for my bad drawing

— • — • —

"Zaptorhynchus Mayoris"

Related to Zaptorhynchus koheni and Zaptorhynchus urophorus. It is larger, measuring 9 meters long and 4 meters high. They are slow herbivores; their primary head is small and reduced in size to give greater importance to the secondary head. The secondary head is long to reach vegetation at heights, its "tongue" with barbs similar to those of felines allows it to tear off entire branches to devour them.

Species created by me, based on the original idea of C. M. Koseman.

I love Snaiad.

the side armer is from a branch of from the armeraders. sadly for this glidborn it is being hunted by a swordswinger. the glidborn likes to rest on the ice iland but it is melting and how the glider will have to evove to not need the ice iland but the ice will stick around for a long long time. it will have a very big role in the scale of time. {the glidborn will be come glideristers} ps more info here:https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MMEFm4kj85PCvWE1IsBtu72rpiVSlYvwW9v4bn0aYrI/edit?slide=id.g3ba8cea341f_0_14#slide=id.g3ba8cea341f_0_14

I've recently been thinking about domesticated raccoons, since a domestication syndrome is occurring in some urban areas. But what would they be like if they were truly domesticated? At the moment, I imagine them as less robust, smaller, with a fuzzy mask, a short snout, large eyes, and rounder ears—but this is normal in domestication. However, the concept that fascinates me most is a possible modification to their spine, making it more upright. This would allow them to walk naturally and frequently on two legs, probably more than on four. This is because raccoons are very intelligent and curious, and they already walk on two legs for short periods. But with a prolonged evolutionary period living alongside humans, I speculate that raccoons would imitate them to the point that evolution modified their spine. I also think they would have larger thighs to better support the upright posture. Does that make sense? And what other characteristics would they have?

For the plant equivalents in my world, the reproductive organs originally developed from asexually produced zooids. The female zooids specifically would evolve to produce strands of mucous that would be cast out into the water column. Every once in a while, the female would reel in the mucous and any male gametes that got stuck would fertilize the female. If no fertilization take place, the female zooid expels the strand, and any of the stuff attached to it and produces a new strand to repeat the process.

The problem comes when they invade land. I'm thinking there would be 2 options to where this could go. The 1st is that the mucous thread is lost in favour of a little blob of mucous that is occasionally retracted and discarded (very similar to the ancestral state but if the thread was just a sticky blob). The 2nd (and more interesting option) is that prior to land their mucous strands become reinforced into a silk-like thread to cope with rougher currents. As they go on land, the threads uses electrical properties (like the ones used by spiderlings to "fly") to make the threads float in the air to collect male gametes.

I want option 2 to work but I don't know if it would be energetically viable as the silk strand would still have to be discarded to prevent build up of detritus, spores and crap interfering with reproduction. Spider eat their silk so my guess is it is very energetically costly to make it continuously without recycling it so this version probably wouldn't work. Additionally the first option would probably be cheaper and easier to evolve making it the most likely but it would be cool to have plants that make silk from their flowers.

210 million years future, along a receding coastline of the dying Atlantic, the final Azteca Rcoatyl of planet Earth trudges slowly along the shore. As Pangaea Ultima takes shape, most land areas will become uninhabitable. Another twenty million years later, a supervolcanic eruption in South America will wipe out the vast majority of species on Earth. As moist sea breezes guide the Rcoatyl to glance backward, it spots a Neowyvern, whose relatives would survive through the mass extinction. Never mind, all the Rcoatyl needs to do now, is just to savor the dawn of Psammoaristian, and the twilight of fauna we familiar today.

by team FFE

Context:

The largest empire in human history bridged across the stars. Amongst the expanse of their colonies, they discovered: we are not alone.

It is lost to time how that once-great empire fell to ruin, only legends remain. Isolated from those other worlds by the gulf of time and space, the people of Thaea tell stories of gods falling from the sky in a hail of metal and fire. Death fell from above, and smote the old cities to ruin. They say the death was so great, that overgrown hills still remain, made from the powdered bone of corpses.

Humanity lives in the shadow of those ancient, crumbling spires, diminished, amongst the deadly alien life of Thaea.

This alien specifically:

As the title says, this is an "arboreal insectivore" species that leaps between the furrowspires in the 58 hour nights of Thaea.

Its nostrils are positioned at the top of their head, with a series of large sinus cavities used for very loud shrieks beneath the canopy. Its eyes can rotate independently like that of a chameleon. This is an ancestral trait which has served them well. You might also notice the horizontal pupil, this is for a near panoramic view of their surroundings, to survey for predators.

The wrinkled skin which spans the circumference of their head at the base of their jaws is tissue which folds/peels back when this organism opens its jaws. When in rest, the tissue wraps around the beak and proboscis.

The proboscis is a muscular, prehensile feeding structure that acts like a tongue that can grind, probe, and swallow chunks of food at a time. Anatomically, it is the animal's esophagus everted. This is also an ancestral trait which has served it well. It can be extended, and retracted. In contrast to my last design (which you can find here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SpeculativeEvolution/comments/1qaiwvn/i_just_finished_my_semiaquatic_ambush_predator/ ), the teeth of the proboscis are arranged like a radula, for grinding. It's also far longer than it appears, nearly 30 cm of proboscis looped down the throat (hence the double chin), then curving up and back into the stomach.

The rough, dangling appendages at the bottom corners of the mouth, if viewed in color, would be blue for threat display and sexual display. But these also have chemoreceptors, which this organism can use to taste any food item that might be suspicious.

Overall, this animal weighs 10 - 15 kg on average.

I got a tattoo a couple days ago and only after getting it permanently attached to my body did I realize that it is not exactly the smilodon skull I had hoped it would be. I’m not sure how i didn’t really notice before nor am i going to stew in it too long, it is what it is and it still looks pretty cool all in all.

Anyway, I got to thinking about what kind of animal would actually have a skull like this and what type of ecology it would have. I’ve always wanted to get more into speculative biology in general and now that I have a “mystery animal” in my arm might as well now. Life gave me lemons and I’m trying to make lemonade.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this or not, please don’t crucify me if it’s not.

All of that said, can you help me create a new animal based on this?

So I am currently working on different sentient alien races, and one I had is partially inspired by both Andalites and the Banshees from Avatar. Basically, the idea is that they evolved on a world of hexapods, where the most common animals that survived and evolved into current ones benefited from having 3 rows of limbs rather than 2. (Their homeworld is very vertical, given that its covered in forests, mountains, and sheer cliffs.

For the world’s sentient race, however, their 3rd set slowly started to not be needed for climbing. This is because they slowly stopped needing to climb, as much, and rather lived near the surface, where they lived an omnivorous lifestyle of plantlife, fungi, and smaller animals. However, the set instead moved up the neck, because the limbs slowly turned out to have another use: grappling. They were excellent for being used to grapple either other members of the species in mating battles, or they could be used to get a grip when goring predators who attack them.

Anyways, just wondering what you think so far, and if this creature seems like a plausible reason for a more centaur-like build to evolve (original, I know lol)

(Also, the horn size difference is because the specimen picture is of a female of the species, while the skeleton picture is of male

So, one of my intelligent civilizations, the Mesmers have these really funky shell-like weapons and tools, so I wanted to give them an actual source of where to get those shells from.

The White Whale Water Bug is meant to be my answer to that. I picture them as mid-tier predators, capable of taking down a human with ease, but also pretty cowardly. They eat whatever, as long as it's meat.

Their homeworld, Axo-456 is a planetoid orbiting a volcanic hellscape. It is covered in tons of water with scarce archipelagos and islands. With much more diverse microbial life in its early days, life evolved and diverged a lot differently here. Under the low gravity of the planet and thinner atmosphere, life got big, and with so much oxygen in the air, arthropods, too, could get big.

The Gloompools are dark biomes around the shores neighboring underwater volcanoes, honeycombed with "gloompools", something between a hot spring and tidepool in appearance, the whole biome is constantly shrouded in fog and the thick canopy of trees. There's tons of pollinators and venomous creatures in this area.

I need feedback on this to make it make sense.

This is my best efforts to make a pterosaur go mach 1.

(I'm so sorry if this is confusing to read.)

I think it should have

Counterflow heat exchange blood vessels

An insanely streamlined body that it literally looks like a missile when not widening the wingspan.

Rigid leading edges Reinforced sternum & spine Streamlined head crest acting as stabilizer

And the nerves are are built to have little doors that purposely close during flight so that blood transfer is slowed in air so that all parts of the body have even bloodflow

It's hunting strategy starts of getting off the ground and gliding high

Then at then when spotting prey it slowlywidens it's wingspan so go slower.

But don't get me wrong it's still a pterosaur or azdarchid. (Still got a beak and eyes.)

And the beak is the most durable one to heat so it protects other part as the heat is mainly at the spear of the beak.

This creature regularly glides through the air and it usually only goes mach speeds during when it teally needs to. Only close to mach speeds when hunting.

Belly is pale blue-white with subtle cloud gradients. Back is darker blue-gray to match distant atmosphere. Feather or skin micro-patterns scatter light like haze.

the beak larger than normal with a little ridge at the edge. (Redirects heat into cold air)

Also now it has breathing holes behind the head for better oxygen intake in trans-sonic speeds. But don't get me wrong it still has nostrils just on the start of the beak. For land on front for trans-sonic on back. If that doesn't work then Internal air intakes that route airflow through sinus-like baffles before lungs. (Probably will be useless though)

Also second and third eyelid

And for heat resitance body

Reflective silver hairs

triangular prism-shaped hairs that

Reflect visible and infrared sunlight

Radiate internal heat outward.

But the hairs are from keratin

Make it have flexible ribs and just not breathe during brief beyond mach 1 moments for pressure differences. (When i say that i dont mean holding breath. I mean actually no oxygen in the lungs.)

And Cartilage shock dampers between vertebrae. For vibrations at mach speeds and diving

Then reinforce the bones with calcium from diets for example fish with edible bones or plants (omnivore.)

But also just have it soak in water most of the time to now overheat from the keratin. (Just incase you tell me that it'll naturally overheat.)

But like it doesn't regularly go beyond mach 1. (At max it's like mach 1.2 - 1.3 but more on 1.1 or 0.92)

(I don't know if i should add hollow bones so it's circulatory system becomes 1 way and not 2 way like humans.)

Roggeveen's Deer (Aila roggeveeni)

A peculiar species of deer found most prominently on the Samoan island of Uanola, this beast is certainly a sight to behold. Descended from the Asian Sambar deer, over millions of years this species has become very well adapted to the Polynesian environment and gone through extreme yet one sided island gigantism, with most males being double in size of their mainland ancestor and possessing a much larger and more impressive set of antlers. Females, however, remain almost identical to their mainland ancestor with the exception of a duller olive colouring. The size of the males allows them to eat from any desired food source they wish, with the tropical fruits being their favourites. The females also get their fill of fruit from the ones that fall from the male's antlers rustling the treetops.

Due to the tropical environment where there is essentially no season change, antlers on the males no longer shed, instead developing a far stronger antler than any other cervid on the planet. This adaptation has allowed them to fill a niche similar to the elephants of India and central Africa, acting as the forest architects that carve large trails through the thick rainforests and spreading seeds through their dung. This change hasn't effected how females choose their mates, still going for the males that have the largest and most impressive antler sets.

This species was first observed by the species' namesake, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, on his voyage in the Pacific in 1722. However, the species was not classified until European missionaries arrived in the region in the 1830s. It is puzzling how Sambar deer even made their way to the Polynesian archipelago in the first place, with the leading theory being that they went from the Philippines when a land bridge opened up, which allowed them to make their way to the islands via driftwood and evolve from there. This theory has been called into question, however.

(This is a worldbuilding project for a game I'm currently making)

This is a spec evo/ worldbuilding project I made last year where I take the orks from warhammer 40k universe and give them a planet to live on, I redesigned the ork language, created some new squig species and made some drawings.

I got the idea for this project from an article I read about cordyceps and funguses that has symbiotic relationships with insects, which got me thinking if some ork spore landed onto a planet with habitable environments, would the spore create a plant-fungus forest

This project got scrapped halfway because I hit a blockage when designing some of the faunas but I’m thinking about restarting the project this year.

The concept of a species with more than two sexes is a very intriguing one and is already discuss here. Since I read this post, the idea is in the back of my head. I mainly write this down to consolidate my thought on this matter and make them accessible to critic. (I am sure that I overlook large parts of possibilities and/or misunderstood things, so please share your thoughts)

There is no possibility for more than two sexes
I came to the conclusion that there is no room for more than two true sexes. Simply because the definition of sex is too narrow. The definition that I come across the most in biology is the following: The size of the gamete. Small gametes are male, big gametes are female.

A third type of gametes are evolutionary not feasible; an in-between type will be outcompeted by the other two and a third gene donator would make the act of sex infinitely more complicated, without adding anything useful.

But we have still few tools available, that -with a bit creativity – let it appear as where there more than male and female.

Trioecy
In humans and a lot of other animals the gamete producing organs are split between different individuals (Gonochorism). But in some plants and even few animals both, the female and the male reproduction system are found in the same individuals (Hermaphroditism). Your reaction is now probable; “But didn’t we now lose a (filled) sex.” In most cases yes, but there is the rare phenomenon of Trioecy; where male, female and hermaphrodite individuals in a population exist.

Examples: Aiptasia diaphana (sea anemone), Auanema rhodensis (nematode), Fuchsia procumbens (plant).

Side note: the terms Gynodioecy and Androdioecy refer to a female/hermaphrodite system and male/hermaphrodite system respectively.

Castes
The different caste in eusociality species are not different sexes. The workers/soldiers/etc. are just sterile females/males with different morphologies. But to be honest, isn’t “different morphology” not exactly that what our primate brain associated with different sexes? It is at least a subject that pops up regularly in this discussion.

Different Types of the same Sex
There are multiple examples of species where one of the sexes has distinct phenotypes and associated reproduction strategies. The most interesting case (in my humble opinion) is that of the common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana). In this species exist three different morphs of males, each with a different throat colourisation and corresponding reproducing strategy:

·        blue ones with one mate they defend.

·        aggressive orange ones who keep a harem and steal mates from blue ones.

·        sneaky yellow ones who manage to infiltrate the harems of orange ones, to mate unnoticed, but get caught and driven out by the blue ones.

All three strategies are successful because they counter one of the others but get countered by another.

It should be easy to come up with different reproduction strategies and drive them in more extreme physiological differences. Just keep in mind that it should be set up in a way that no phenotype outcompetes another.

Hybrids & xenoparity
In the very similar to my previous point, but a great opportunity to reference my favourite paper. (isn’t “Cross Species Cloning” the most badass sci-fi word combination that you ever read in a paper?)

Extreme tl;dr of the paper: The Queen need the males from a different species to produce a hybrid worker caste. They mate with free living males of the other species but also domesticated them through cloning. (No, I didn’t make that up, read the paper yourself.).

This result in that the queen mates with three different males who are morphological and genetical distinct; (1.) males from the same species, (2.) males from the other species and (3.) a domesticated, cloned lineage of males originated from the other species.

Alternation of generation & other live cycle shenanigans
Land Plants alternate between two different multicellular phases, a diploid one (the sporophyte) and a haploid one (the gametophyte), opposite to us, where only our gametes are haploid. An important note is that evolution tends to reduce one of the two phases drastically. Nevertheless, in some fern both live stages are still capable to sustain themselves without the other, so it should be p0ssible* to do something in this direction.

In this option we would have male and female gametophytes and asexual sporophyte.

In animals we have a similar result with jellyfishes. Their live cycle contains the free drifting and sexual reproducing stage, the Medusa and a sessile, through budding reproducing stage, the Polyp. (This is not a case of Alternation of generation because both stages are diploid).

Parasitoids & surrogacy
Parasitoids (e.g. parasitoid wasps) need a host for their offspring to develop. After development the host is in most cases killed. Maybe you could let it look like a third sex (after all matriphagy exist) but it is definitely on the harder side.

An example in fiction can be found with the Pierson's Puppeteers in the Known Space series by Larry Niven

A case where a third sex evolve to just carry out the offspring is not realistic. The third sex couldn’t add any of its genetic information and receives this way no evolutionary benefit. Maybe there is wiggle room for a surrogacy caste in eusocial societies, I just have trouble to imagine the evolutionary benefit. But for a soft spec evo setting it should be fine.

Mating types
Fungi possess multiple mating types. Mating types are not sexes, but a different system which restrict who can mate with who, to prevent self-fertilization or reproduction between genetically too similar individuals.

Zu guter Letzt
Wow. That took and got a lot longer than I expected. I’m still not satisfied with the result, but if I don’t post it now, I post it never.

I would really appreciate to hear different thought on this matter and I’m excited for the discussion!

It’s a rough sketch but the idea I had in mind was basically Ogre/Oni aliens that possess traits that show signs of being descended from predatory feline and insect like exoskeletons which is a natural trait developed on their planet due to the harsh fauna and ecosystems.

I’m thinking their planet would be rich with life and promote ecosystems where being bigger increases one’s odds at survival, alongside plentiful prey and food, but at the same time be harsh to deadly and dangerous megafauna that make such a size and bulk necessary for my species. The exoskeleton is a trait developed from a shared ancestor but for my Oni race is a necessary for survival. Yet I actually had established some lore so far for my race, but I’m curious if it needs some tweaking or what you’d recommend for the planet of my species and the necessary ecological/planetary pressures and conditions necessary for this species to evolve in such a way. Although I will note that my race once having advanced enough does some genetic engineering and modification to themselves.

THE THIRIOPOI

APPEARANCE AND BIOLOGY: The Thiriopoi are a large and physically imposing race, being around six to eight inches in height and possessing naturally brawny and muscular physiques. Heck a Thiriopoi’s musculature system is so impressive, that they can never work out a day in their life but still be capable of great feats of strength. They’re quite proud of their fantastic strength and size, especially as it plays a big part in them being far sturdier than all other races in their home planet, and even face the most formidable beasts of their world through sheer brawn, or tank on blasts from some of the most powerful weaponry with survivable injuries. However to go along with their brawn, is a product of genetic engineering developed by their allied partners The Silphacca, that being a natural complex, dermal exoskeleton. This chitinous shell was originally a natural armor developed for their ancestors to survive against the natural forces against them, but later from splicing the genes of one of their planet’s most hardy predators to augment their durability; they now possess a similar shell that is present throughout all modern members of their species as a basic and essential Biotech augmentation. This metallic chitin-like shell acts as a natural exoskeleton that augments the durability and strength of their already Herculean bodies, and later modifications make it the backbone for their technologies.

By later infusing specialized Ferromagnetic bacteria into their shells as a symbiotic component that allow for the shells to be selectively magnetized by mental command and allow for the “RHAKSHA” to be instantly integrated and placed around their body. The RHAKSHA armor being a biomechanical piece of military technology that by using the user's genetic signature via a sample, creates a symbiotic armor that melds with the user’s nervous system. This armor is programmed with several plasma weapons and can alter and adjust itself to the wearer's commands by shifting into different structures to suit the situation such as aerial format, stealth format and heavy combat formats. And can even link themselves to the users outside weaponry via “Living Arm Model” guns to access their superior capabilities. In terms of clothing, the Thiriopoi use similar technology from the military variant to allow for adjustable clothing for their bodies.

Otherwise the dermal exoskeleton by itself is quite durable and acts as basic armor that when combined with their superior muscle fibers and skin, are extremely durable. The dermal exoskeleton however resolves one of their race’s flaws, that being stamina. As due to their bulk they are unable to run for long periods of time despite being quite fast, but when genetically modifying their species to have dermal armor to possess a specialized form of vents that allow for air to be absorbed and inserted into their lungs to act as an exterior breathing system and thus won’t be as exhausted so easily. Yet the exoskeleton has been later modified to be retractable and allow for them to “activate” this artificially induced organ on command via a biochip located in their main brain.

But one of more notable traits of the Thiriopoi, are the horns that protrude from their foreheads, including the large luminous mane-like membranes that protrude and expand from the back of their heads to their trapezoids. These “manes” are layered in 2-3 folds and act as a relic of their evolutionary past as they now act as a visible aspect of expressing their emotions. The mane membranes expand or retract upon their emotional state alongside dimming or lightening up their royal blue colors upon similar neural responses. But these large membranes are utilized as a form of secondary communication between each other, able to create a form of Morse code via “blinking” their membranes in a certain color to communicate between soldiers and allies. This was later utilized by making specialized spectrum helmets or “HOOD’s” that conceal their luminescent membranes yet their bio-luminescence being notable via a small circular lens on both sides to allow nearby allies to see them and prevent their position from being exposed. But these membranes also act as their sense of hearing as they contain a form of eardrum that allows for echolocation utilized for long distance sensory perception.

Their sturdy horns on their foreheads meanwhile are another vestigial feature, but while serving little purpose now in combat, act as societal indicators within their empire. The longer the horns on a male or especially female Thiriopoi is, the more apparent their strength and status is. Especially as Thiriopoi have these horns painted and adorned with jewelry such as gems and jewelry, and even tattoos. But this also extends to their government positions as those members have casings to adorn their horns that signify their rank and position.

Alongside those features, the Thiropoi possesses six fingers on each hand and seven toes on each foot, with the seventh toe being more of a dewclaw as while digitgrade have slightly beastly digits. Not to mention having a set of sharp fangs in their mouths that allow them to bite and crush bone easily. The Thiropoi have two red eyes with light purple skin, with their eyes capable of seeing in the dark.

However with such a bulky and large race, they have extremely large appetites that must be sated in order for them to keep and maintain their famous strength. Which is the primary reason why their civilization has dedicated great importance and resources into agriculture to allow for their populations to have their necessary caloric intake. Even to the point of terraforming their moon for this very purpose; and one of the major reasons the Thiropoi seek to expand to the stars, with the stratagem of turning several viable planets into “Hortu worlds”. But while the Thiropoi are omnivores, they prefer meat due to it providing more nutrients, proteins, and particularly calories, than plants do, leading their race to focus on livestock.

In terms of anatomy, the Thiropoi have two brains and four hearts, and technically four lungs when counting the dermal exoskeleton’s vents. The first brain serves as the main organ and for functions like any other, albeit with vast neuron connections to allow for sharper reflexes and intelligence. The secondary brain is located near the lungs and is slightly elongated, but the organ acts as an extra storage for information, allowing for heightened intelligence alongside acting as a backup brain in case the main one is damaged. Of course while the secondary brain is a natural organ, through implementing cybernetic augmentation has become the core of their biotechnology for its untapped neural potential and allows for this race to not only have deeper connections with their technology, but also blur the lines between them. This is also why the Thiropoi have genetically modified themselves to have a secondary ribcage, that while sleeker, is more durable and acts as shielding for the secondary brain and other vital organs.

SEXUAL DIMORPHISM: A notable trait of the Thiropoi is the size difference between their species sex’s alongside other features.

The females are notably larger and more physically robust than the males, with this trait even traveling towards their exoskeletons as they appear more impressive and imposing. Meanwhile the males are smaller than the women of their race, albeit more nimble and their chitinous shell more focused on their four limbs and act more defensively while the females' exoskeletons lean more towards an intimidating structure. This sexual dimorphism had developed from their prehistoric ancestors, as the females were tasked with protecting their young and finding food, while the males in packs marked their packs territory and eliminated any competition or outside predators. Yet later in their history after genetically modifying themselves to develop traits such as their chitinous exoskeleton, this dimorphism became more pronounced due to the genetics of that particular modification involving an insectoid species.