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Description
After 26 years, the second joint expedition to Darwin IV has landed. My landing on the planet was uneventful, and with the improved DGPS (Darwin GPS) and stronger and better radios, to help with contacts between people, I set out. I decided to go to the largest pocket forest there was, partially because the plains were already well documented, and partially because I was enchanted by Barlowe's description of the place. When the destination was set, I fired up my turbofan and set off.

After over two hours of traveling at nearly 65 miles per hour, I arrived at the pocket-forest. Our hovercones, the upgraded version of the Mk. V, was slimmer, more efficient, lighter, and sturdier. It also had little ground dwelling droids that could be dropped and would, when the battery was close to dead at the end of the day, come back to the hovercone to be retrieved. These were specially built, able to take samples of dead tissue, analyze it, and return it. It also performed soil spectrophotometry, seismic indication, and also functioned like the VAP as a remote video camera. I found it especially useful for exploring the numerous pocket-forests.

I spent a good hour circling the forest to find the stream that Barlowe had entered in his explorations. After finding it, I entered. Although our hovercones were smaller than the previous ones, they were still a bit too big to enter the pocket-forests without destroying some Plaque-bark branches. Plus, I had thought of the Daggerwrist's anger if I knocked down a tree that they were hunting on. It was not a pretty image. I slowly moved downstream, and once finding a large enough bank, I released the first of the ground-probes. I watched, with envy, as it parachuted down to touch the foreign soil below.

The capsule that it was encased in retracted as soon as it touched down, revealing a shoebox sized robot. I immediately steered it into the forest, and once it disappeared into the brush, I turned on the light. The forest's golden light was a bit hard to see in, especially in the thick brush that the bot was inside of. I steered it forward, face pressed to the screen. I couldn't wait to see my first large creature.

After a while, I got kind of bored. I had seen nothing. Plants, plants, plants, nothing more, nothing less. That was until I came into a small clearing in the forest, where the light was more intense. What I saw surprised and elated me.

A group of large animals were in the center. They were unlike any animal I had ever seen before. Along their backs were large, recurving spines, most backwards facing, but the anterior-most were facing forward. On their shoulders were long, Triceratops like spikes that faced straight forward. They were bipedal, the rear of the body carried by a large, lightweight but strong skid. Their bodies were brown, and their heads were black, with a serrated proboscis in the front of the triangular head. Most unusually was the grayish bunch of skin on the tail, covered with a net of violet biolights. What was that used for, I wondered?

My question was answered almost immediately when another denizen of the forest appeared. It was an animal twice as tall as the previous standing at ten feet tall, and powerfully built, from its muscled tail to the triangular head. A thin tongue flicked out of its head, with a serrated proboscis underneath. Taking one look at the creature, I knew that it was a member of the arrowtongue clade. It was smaller than it's plains cousin, but no less ferocious. I watched, with considerable apprehension, as the animal stood perfectly still in the forest. The biolights were dim on the creature, and when I took a thermal scan, I realized that the animal had cooled its body temperature to reduce its infrared signature. It was an impressive adaptation for an animal to have evolved. The arrowtongue had on its back a large biolit sail that resembled a Suchomimus's in proportional size and structure After it waited for a while, it decided to make its move. It slowly crept towards the herd, and then rushed at it. This garnered instant results.

The herd's sonar went wild, and then silent, and then the pinging turned into a trilling from those facing the animal. The silent ones turned around and inflated the grey areas of their tails with a loud honking noise, and began waving their tails in the air, biolights rapidly dimming and brightening in sequence with each other. When I took a thermal scan of their bodies, I noticed that they were much cooler than the bladders on their tails. The heat and the noise from the group must have scared the Sail-Backed Arrowtongue away, since it stopped, backed up, and walked away, the plants swishing behind it.

The Arrowtongue's departure had the effect of relaxing the herd. The bladders deflated, and the the animals seemed relaxed. Because of what I just saw, I named the animals Spined Bladder-tails.

The Spined Bladder-tails, now relaxed, now shambled over to the trees around the clearing and extended their proboscis and buried them into the soft soil. I was curious as to what they were doing, and I ran a series of scans from the probe. It showed that they were burying their proboscis into the soft ground and into the roots of the plaque barks and sucking up the sap. This raised another question: How did they grow so big if they only subsisted on the carbohydrate rich sap? Well, it turned out that they were omnivorous, taking all sorts of plant, animal, and fungi as foodstuff. Their 50 foot long tongues, powered by hyper-developed muscles can accelerate to high speeds, enough to pluck a trunksucker from the air. I viewed this once before, as one snagged a trunksucker from right in front of a gliding daggerwrist. As you can imagine, it was pretty confused as to where its prey went. It also eats electrophytes, completely unperturbed by the electric shocks that it get as it burrows deep into the electricity producing organ to feed on. All of these food items explained why the animals grew so large.

In the three Darwinian years that we stayed, I was privileged to have witnessed one and a half years of the life of the Spined Bladder-tail, from birth to adulthood. It was the fall of the first year that the creatures mated. Like most of the species on Darwin IV, they are hermaphroditic and mating leads to both partners being impregnated. There was a mating ritual between two partners, except for the alpha pair, the leaders of the herd. It consisted of the threat display and rotation around each other, and when compatibility was decided, they ran at each other and locked shoulder spines and pushed, much like the Uunths. When strength was matched, compatibility was decided, and the creatures mated.

A few months later, I stomachs fat with unlaid eggs, the creatures decided to move. I was fine with this, as it had been at least a half a Darwinian year since I had arrived. Lo and behold, they only walked to another area in the forest before they stopped. They then proceeded to take vegetation and make one large nest. The alpha pair went forward and laid their eggs in the center of the nest, and then the others laid theirs in the nest. They then piled more vegetation on top of the nest and went back to the periphery of the clearing, where they resumed feeding on the tree roots.

It was a few weeks before the Babies hatched. As the time grew closer, the animals seemed to start feeding closer to the nest, always wary for any animal that would eat the eggs. As a matter of fact, some of the eggs were taken by ghost brakenhoppers. The central position of the alphas' eggs is most likely a defense against this. Once an hour, one of the herd would go to the nest and stick their head into the vegetation, and by thermal scans I was able to determine that they were coating the eggs in saliva, which I determined had antibiotic function.

Finally, the wait was over, and I was able to witness the birth of the infants. As the time drew near, the entire herd seemed to grow more and more agitated until they were practically running circuits around the clearing. They would repeatedly go to the nest, return to the periphery, and then go back to the nest. Finally, the nest was uncovered and the eggs exposed. Then the alphas' eggs began expanding. They grew bigger and bigger until the egg shells burst open with a soft pop, and a baby Spined Bladder-tail, the bladder expanded, came into the world. They attempted to stand on three wobbly legs, and then, almost immediately, flopped dramatically to the ground. Then an adult picked up a baby and moved it to a separate, smaller depression, the proboscis gently curled around the panting baby. The offspring were then given a piece of plaque-bark root, which they began to suck on. They were to remain in the nest for ten weeks, and then the bouncing toddlers started to leave the nest and play around the clearing. Whenever danger threatened, the adults would form a ring around the infants, and slam their tails on the ground and shake their shoulder spines at the intruder. One unlucky predator came too close and was rammed by an adult. The animal had its leg impaled, and limped away, while the attacker waved its tail and inflated its tail, inflating and deflating its bladders.

Eventually, 3 months after birth, the offspring had their third leg atrophy and then discarded, and the skid became the support for the hindquarters. They were now adults. I was called away for another survey, and left these creatures alone.

Description
After 26 years, the second joint expedition to Darwin IV has landed. My landing on the planet was uneventful, and with the improved DGPS (Darwin GPS) and stronger and better radios, to help with contacts between people, I set out. I decided to go to the largest pocket forest there was, partially because the plains were already well documented, and partially because I was enchanted by Barlowe's description of the place. When the destination was set, I fired up my turbofan and set off.

After over two hours of traveling at nearly 65 miles per hour, I arrived at the pocket-forest. Our hovercones, the upgraded version of the Mk. V, was slimmer, more efficient, lighter, and sturdier. It also had little ground dwelling droids that could be dropped and would, when the battery was close to dead at the end of the day, come back to the hovercone to be retrieved. These were specially built, able to take samples of dead tissue, analyze it, and return it. It also performed soil spectrophotometry, seismic indication, and also functioned like the VAP as a remote video camera. I found it especially useful for exploring the numerous pocket-forests.

I spent a good hour circling the forest to find the stream that Barlowe had entered in his explorations. After finding it, I entered. Although our hovercones were smaller than the previous ones, they were still a bit too big to enter the pocket-forests without destroying some Plaque-bark branches. Plus, I had thought of the Daggerwrist's anger if I knocked down a tree that they were hunting on. It was not a pretty image. I slowly moved downstream, and once finding a large enough bank, I released the first of the ground-probes. I watched, with envy, as it parachuted down to touch the foreign soil below.

The capsule that it was encased in retracted as soon as it touched down, revealing a shoebox sized robot. I immediately steered it into the forest, and once it disappeared into the brush, I turned on the light. The forest's golden light was a bit hard to see in, especially in the thick brush that the bot was inside of. I steered it forward, face pressed to the screen. I couldn't wait to see my first large creature.

After a while, I got kind of bored. I had seen nothing. Plants, plants, plants, nothing more, nothing less. That was until I came into a small clearing in the forest, where the light was more intense. What I saw surprised and elated me.

A group of large animals were in the center. They were unlike any animal I had ever seen before. Along their backs were large, recurving spines, most backwards facing, but the anterior-most were facing forward. On their shoulders were long, Triceratops like spikes that faced straight forward. They were bipedal, the rear of the body carried by a large, lightweight but strong skid. Their bodies were brown, and their heads were black, with a serrated proboscis in the front of the triangular head. Most unusually was the grayish bunch of skin on the tail, covered with a net of violet biolights. What was that used for, I wondered?

My question was answered almost immediately when another denizen of the forest appeared. It was an animal twice as tall as the previous standing at ten feet tall, and powerfully built, from its muscled tail to the triangular head. A thin tongue flicked out of its head, with a serrated proboscis underneath. Taking one look at the creature, I knew that it was a member of the arrowtongue clade. It was smaller than it's plains cousin, but no less ferocious. I watched, with considerable apprehension, as the animal stood perfectly still in the forest. The biolights were dim on the creature, and when I took a thermal scan, I realized that the animal had cooled its body temperature to reduce its infrared signature. It was an impressive adaptation for an animal to have evolved. The arrowtongue had on its back a large biolit sail that resembled a Suchomimus's in proportional size and structure After it waited for a while, it decided to make its move. It slowly crept towards the herd, and then rushed at it. This garnered instant results.

The herd's sonar went wild, and then silent, and then the pinging turned into a trilling from those facing the animal. The silent ones turned around and inflated the grey areas of their tails with a loud honking noise, and began waving their tails in the air, biolights rapidly dimming and brightening in sequence with each other. When I took a thermal scan of their bodies, I noticed that they were much cooler than the bladders on their tails. The heat and the noise from the group must have scared the Sail-Backed Arrowtongue away, since it stopped, backed up, and walked away, the plants swishing behind it.

The Arrowtongue's departure had the effect of relaxing the herd. The bladders deflated, and the the animals seemed relaxed. Because of what I just saw, I named the animals Spined Bladder-tails.

The Spined Bladder-tails, now relaxed, now shambled over to the trees around the clearing and extended their proboscis and buried them into the soft soil. I was curious as to what they were doing, and I ran a series of scans from the probe. It showed that they were burying their proboscis into the soft ground and into the roots of the plaque barks and sucking up the sap. This raised another question: How did they grow so big if they only subsisted on the carbohydrate rich sap? Well, it turned out that they were omnivorous, taking all sorts of plant, animal, and fungi as foodstuff. Their 50 foot long tongues, powered by hyper-developed muscles can accelerate to high speeds, enough to pluck a trunksucker from the air. I viewed this once before, as one snagged a trunksucker from right in front of a gliding daggerwrist. As you can imagine, it was pretty confused as to where its prey went. It also eats electrophytes, completely unperturbed by the electric shocks that it get as it burrows deep into the electricity producing organ to feed on. All of these food items explained why the animals grew so large.

In the three Darwinian years that we stayed, I was privileged to have witnessed one and a half years of the life of the Spined Bladder-tail, from birth to adulthood. It was the fall of the first year that the creatures mated. Like most of the species on Darwin IV, they are hermaphroditic and mating leads to both partners being impregnated. There was a mating ritual between two partners, except for the alpha pair, the leaders of the herd. It consisted of the threat display and rotation around each other, and when compatibility was decided, they ran at each other and locked shoulder spines and pushed, much like the Uunths. When strength was matched, compatibility was decided, and the creatures mated.

A few months later, I stomachs fat with unlaid eggs, the creatures decided to move. I was fine with this, as it had been at least a half a Darwinian year since I had arrived. Lo and behold, they only walked to another area in the forest before they stopped. They then proceeded to take vegetation and make one large nest. The alpha pair went forward and laid their eggs in the center of the nest, and then the others laid theirs in the nest. They then piled more vegetation on top of the nest and went back to the periphery of the clearing, where they resumed feeding on the tree roots.

It was a few weeks before the Babies hatched. As the time grew closer, the animals seemed to start feeding closer to the nest, always wary for any animal that would eat the eggs. As a matter of fact, some of the eggs were taken by ghost brakenhoppers. The central position of the alphas' eggs is most likely a defense against this. Once an hour, one of the herd would go to the nest and stick their head into the vegetation, and by thermal scans I was able to determine that they were coating the eggs in saliva, which I determined had antibiotic function.

Finally, the wait was over, and I was able to witness the birth of the infants. As the time drew near, the entire herd seemed to grow more and more agitated until they were practically running circuits around the clearing. They would repeatedly go to the nest, return to the periphery, and then go back to the nest. Finally, the nest was uncovered and the eggs exposed. Then the alphas' eggs began expanding. They grew bigger and bigger until the egg shells burst open with a soft pop, and a baby Spined Bladder-tail, the bladder expanded, came into the world. They attempted to stand on three wobbly legs, and then, almost immediately, flopped dramatically to the ground. Then an adult picked up a baby and moved it to a separate, smaller depression, the proboscis gently curled around the panting baby. The offspring were then given a piece of plaque-bark root, which they began to suck on. They were to remain in the nest for ten weeks, and then the bouncing toddlers started to leave the nest and play around the clearing. Whenever danger threatened, the adults would form a ring around the infants, and slam their tails on the ground and shake their shoulder spines at the intruder. One unlucky predator came too close and was rammed by an adult. The animal had its leg impaled, and limped away, while the attacker waved its tail and inflated its tail, inflating and deflating its bladders.

Eventually, 3 months after birth, the offspring had their third leg atrophy and then discarded, and the skid became the support for the hindquarters. They were now adults. I was called away for another survey, and left these creatures alone.