Content:Screek

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The Screek is a distant cousin of the Aurix, residing in the same general area of the planet Vuunega. They are the last of the hemophagic descendants of the original Zocellium strain to have evolved.

Contents 1 Scientific Classification 2 Statistics 3 Food Chain 3.1 Prey 3.2 Predators 4 Physiology 4.1 Skeleton 4.2 Musculatory System 4.3 Brain & Nerve Center 4.4 Digestive System 4.5 Respiratory System 4.6 Circulatory System 4.7 Senses 5 Evolutionary History

[edit] Scientific Classification

Domain: Monocentralis (Single-Nucleus Complex Organisms)
Kingdom: --
Subkingdom: --
Superphylum: --
Phylum: Unspecified ("Animals" with Notochords)
Subphylum: Unspecified (Vertebrates)
Infraphylum: Gnathostoma (Jawed Vertebrates)
Superclass: Bipodomorpha (Two-Legged Vertebrates & Their Descendants)
Series: Ovozoan (Animals possessing amniotic eggs)
Class: Tentacleiosaura "Tentacle Reptile" (Tentacleiosaurs -- "Reptilians with tentacles")
Subclass: Chlorosauridae "Green Lizard" (Tentacleiosaurs with chloroplastic buds)
Infraclass: Unspecified
Superorder: Unspecified
Order: Unspecified
Suborder: Unspecified
Infraorder: --
Family: Unspecified
Subfamily: Unspecified
Genus: --
Species: Unspecified
Binominal Name: Unspecified

[edit] Statistics

Species Type: Cold-blooded Aerial Tentacleiosaur
Lifestyle: Nocturnal Social Hemophage
Hunt/Forage Success Rate: 80% Hunt (70% success rate), 20% Photosynthesis (99.7% success rate during day, 5% success rate during night)
Armor: Screek, being nocturnal creatures, never evolved armor, and instead rely solely on their leathery skin. This makes them primary targets for certain species, but even so, their nocturnal habits give them few actual predator species to have to contend with.
Defenses: Like their cousin species which include the Aurix, they possess electroplaques which are stored within their tails. These produce a low amp voltage capable of little more than a dizzying discomfort and weak headaches, and are typically used to incapacitate foes of roughly their size. However, since they are very ill-equipped to survive in aquatic environments, these electroplaques are almost never used to physically harm an opponent. Their skin also utilizes a weak poison, which when combined with their weak poison resistance and bony skeleton, can deter certain foes from killing them. Their skin is also black, to help them blend in with the night air as well as the shadows caused by daylight.
Weapons: Screeka are relatively ill-armed for offensive combat in terms of the multitude of their arsenal, but they are not exactly a violent race and will only fight if necessary. The first of the two weapons they utilize is their proboscis, which they can use to cause jabbing, bleeding wounds. This is more often than not used in situations when they are in close-combat range, but it is also used to bleed and suck blood from their prey. For attacks meant to cause actual physical harm, they utilize a bone ring, which extends from the tip of their long, stiff tail. This acts as a razor-sharp blade that can gouge out large openings in foes, and can even cause death if enough damage is inflicted with them.
Tools: While they do in fact possess a pair of tentacle-arms, these have been fully adapted into a set of wings and much smaller stabilizers, respectively. This brings their manipulative abilities to an all-time low, with only two 'clasper' like appendages at the end of the wing-tentacles. That being said, most Screek can go their entire life without manipulating anything other than mates during copulation.
Method of Eating: Unspecified
Reproductive Rate: While adulthood is reached after about 13 months, sexual maturity itself isn't reached until after 2 years. They reproduce during the windy autumn months.
Gestation: 25 days then lays eggs -- eggs are laid into the colony in nest clutches within the colony and dug out slightly if possible, where one of the mated pair will remain over the eggs to protect them from the numerous other Screek that might accidentally crush them, gently pecking at any would-be intruders. Mates will take turns feeding each night, allowing each mate to feed only once every other night when brooding.
Offspring Incubation: 1.5 weeks until eggs hatch after being laid.
Number of Offspring: 5 screeklings per litter.
Offspring Survival Rate (before age of maturity): 75% -- Egg thieves specializing in feeding off of Screek eggs are relatively rare, and when combined with the fact that young screek aren't allowed to feed outside the colony, few are killed. Therefore most deaths occur during accidental crushing under the weight of the colony itself, or with inexperienced parents.
Singular/Plural/Possessive: Screek/Screeka/Screekan

[edit] Food Chain

[edit] Prey

While their diet is well-understood, their actual prey species are not. It is not known if they exploit the blood of only certain species, or if they're equal opportunists, like mosquitoes.

[edit] Predators

While the Screek are certainly hard to catch, they do have common predators willing to exploit their existence for a meal. However, only one species is known for a fact to feed on them.

• Spinster

[edit] Physiology

Below in this next section, you will find information on the Quirlaxi physical appearance, and explanations of things including, but not limited to, their skeletal structure and their senses.

[edit] Skeleton

Perhaps because the arms are built exclusively of muscle, the skeleton itself is overall quite fragile. In the past, various parts of the skeleton were thicker and sturdier than others to balance this weight problem out, but current specimens have succeeded in balancing this out by growing a bony, protrusive ring at the end of their long, stiff tails. This "ring-tooth" is heavier than most of the rest of the skeletal structure, allowing the heavy wings in front to be correctly balanced out by the heavy bone in the back.

[edit] Musculatory System

Strangely, the wings of the Screek are not supported by bones in any way; instead, they are held aloft by muscle alone. The muscle of these wings has evolved to be able to stiffen tightly, locking itself in place to allow for flight, while at the same time allowing the wings to be curled up around the body when not in use, although they still seem to commonly crawl about with their wings unfolded, so long as their is no immediate danger that requires scurrying away as opposed to flying.

[edit] Brain & Nerve Center

Despite their small stature, Screeka are surprisingly intelligent, with an intelligence level comparably equal to that of Terran dolphins.

[edit] Digestive System

Because they remained hemophages as opposed to their cousins who - with the exception of the Vrennum and the Grendon - all adapted new feeding styles, they had little need for an actual stomach, and therefore their digestive system is ruled by their Blood Processing Organ. Their diminutive size does not allow for much space, and therefore the organ is fairly small, but in comparison to the rest of the body, it is perfect.

Screekan intestines come in pairs of thin, intertwining ropes which excrete any and all nutrients left over from the blood processor's work. Amazingly, almost no waste product seems to exist.

[edit] Respiratory System

• Under Construction

[edit] Circulatory System

• Under Construction

[edit] Senses

Screekan senses are listed in order from most important to least.

• Hearing: Hearing is by far their strongest sense. Not only does it allow them to pick up their high-pitched squeaks for echolocating, but they can also use it to listen for predators when at rest. Few predators are quiet enough to sneak up on a Screek, even at rest.
• Echolocation: Utilizing echolocation is a necessity in their nocturnal way of life, and they are experts at it. While they lack a true mouth and instead possess a long, sharp-pointed proboscis, their throats still possess an organ that allows them to "squeak" out of the proboscis hole, allowing for a forward-directed echolocation signal to be emitted. Screek will move their heads often during night flights to get a more accurate visualization of the world around them.
• Sight: Useful for traveling during the day on the relatively uncommon occasions that they do.
• Magnetoception: Magnetoception, while weak, allows a Screek to typically know its heading and where its colony's nest is located.
• Electroreception: Once a Screek has located a sleeping creature with its echolocation and it lands during its nightly feedings, it will use the ampullae of lorenzini lining its proboscis to keep track of where the creature remains, to close the distance on foot.
• Touch: Touch in Screekan existence is used almost entirely for determining when they are on their nightly prey (as they won't echolocate once closing the remaining short distances after landing, to help ensure their prey doesn't wake up). It is also used on lower levels during mating.
• ESP: Screek possess primitive extra-sensory perception, which allows them to detect when some natural disaster is going to occur up to an hour beforehand, during which time they can attempt to flee.

[edit] Evolutionary History

An offshoot species of the Aurix, the Screeka split off when evolution refused to melt away their proboscises in favor or mouths, as their brothers had obtained. Segregated from the rest of their packs, they slinked away into surrounding xenosurin forests to eke out their existences in the undergrowth.

Over time they began to climb the xenosurin trees for protection, and eventually shrank in size to better deal with this procedure - the only Zocellium descendant to ever do so. By the time they were the size of cats, their secondary tentacle-arms had moved down their body, giving them better gripping power, and their tails had stiffened to allow better support when scaling the xenosurins. It was not long before their primary tentacle-arms began to grow a flap of skin from their tips to the beginning of their secondaries, allowing them minimal gliding abilities.

However, their hemophagous lifestyle was hard on them, as they were small in size and their diurnal habits allowed them to be spotted very easily and chased off or worse, killed. This quickly led to them becoming nocturnal instead, which in turn led to them beginning to rely on high-pitched sounds to navigate in the darkness, and their secondary tentacle-arms atrophying into stabilizers, which helped pave the way for their ancestors' ability to truly fly.